Nothing to do with the fact that not only is the US the largest stockpiler of cluster munitions, but has also used them recently in Iraq and Afganistan and supplied them to Israel for bombing Lebanon. It is also actively selling them on the world market while opposing the ban of cluster bombs. Are you telling me that the US and India have an equivalent influence? I do NOT support any Indian efforts to oppose the ban, but the largest stockpilers and users are not India.
India's $500M Smerch-M Order: From Russia, With Love 14-Feb-2006 09:08 | Permanent Link Related stories: Contracts - Awards, New Systems Tech, Russia, Other Corporation, Asia - India, Other Equipment - Land, Other Weapons, Rockets Smerch 9K58 firing (click to view full)After nearly five years of negotiations, IANS reports that India finally signed a $500 million deal with Russia on December 31, 2005 for SPLAV's Smerch-M BM 9K58 long-range 300mm multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). Compare them to India's older truck-mounted 122mm Grad rocket launchers, and the capability boost quickly becomes apparent. The Smerch-M contract includes 28 wheeled MAZ-543A vehicles with 12-tube 9A52-2 launchers, plus logistics supply and fire-control vehicles. The systems will arm two artillery regiments of 12 Smerch-Ms each, with 4 platforms being kept in reserve. So, what kind of capabilities does this weapon bring. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
This thread is about the US bill that shows the US is supplying cluster bombs worldwide and opposing their ban inspite of the high civilian and child death rate (98%) Considering you are RIGHT NOW bombing civilians in Iraq Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan, this is a very very serious issue.
Seem India is developing a Ballistic Missile to deliver submunitions. THE CRUISE MISSILE CHALLENGE Although India, Israel, South Africa and Taiwan are ..... One GPS-equipped ballistic missile armed with conventional submunitions. could do the same damage. ... http://www.csbaonline.org/4Publications/PubLibrary/R.20050310.CruiseMiss/R.20050310.CruiseMiss.pdf
SpAM, India is supplying CBUs and buying Systems to deliver CBUs and developing new systems to deliver CBUs, I can't help it that I can show your country for what it is, and what it does, and what you are, a HYPOCRITE. You point your finger at the U.S. and all the while your Jihadi, Islamic Terrorist, and your Country is doing the same and worse, you want to blame the U.S. for the worlds problems but your Moslem Brothers contribute to those problems on a far reaching scale, and on a savage scale that does justice to the Dark Ages, YOU cheer them on, as they rampage across the Globe, killing for Allah and the Prophet, and then FLINCH when someone one show Them and You for what you are, and show your country for what it is. I will continue to post all information on the rest of the Story, and that is India and submunitions, weapons systems, and India's involvement and HYPOCRISY, of saying one thing and doing another, and your hypocrisy in not criticizing your own Government and Religion for the same.
What India is doing is for another thread where you can discuss India's global influence. I want to discuss the civilian casualities of US cluster bombs and why it is still selling and using them, stockpiling them and opposing their ban ---------------------- On October 10th, 2001, U.S. B-52s and B-1s began dropping deadly 1,000 lb. CBU-87 [$14,000 a bomb] and the wind-corrected CBU-103 cluster [fragmentation] bombs upon "soft targets" [vehicles and people] in Afghanistan. Eleven weeks later, U.S.planes had dropped 1,210 cluster bombs, each containing 202 BLU-97 bomblets. The British Halo Trust now estimates on the basis of groundwork in the vales of Afghanistan that 20% of the bomblets failed to explode, meaning 48,884 yellow soda-can sized, yellow-colored deadly sub-munitions now litter the villages, paths and fields of Afghanistan. During the Kosovo air campaign, U.S. and allied planes dropped 1,392 cluster bombs, with a reported fail rate of 8-12%. In the Gulf War, Allied forces dropped 62,000 air-delivered cluster bombs. The British group, Landmine Action, says that over 13 million bomblets were used in the 1991 Gulf War and 1.2 million explosive duds cover Iraq and Kuwait. Pentagon estimates suggest some 285 million such sub-munitions were dropped on Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Cluster bombs (right) look like food aid dropped from planes (left) Tuesday, October 30th Day after heavy cluster bomb raid upon village of Jebrael in western Herat which killed 12 persons, a child picks up a bomblet and is killed. Thursday, November 1st , One killed and one injured in Ishaq Sulaiman village near Herat. Tuesday, November 6th, in the Kharam border district of Pakistan, a shepherd, Mohammed Esa, picks up a strange object which explodes, injuring him. Wednesday, November 7th, One civilian is killed and another injured by an unexploded cluster bomblet in the village of Ishaq Sulaiman Zai, near Herat. Saturday, November 17th, village of Charikari, near Khanabad/Kunduz heavily cluster-bombed. Wednesday,November 21st, Twelve year old Mohibollah was seriously maimed -- his face splattered in blood and a stump of flesh, smashed bones and mangled fingers dangling from his left arm---when a cluster bomblet [dropped on October 22nd ] exploded as he was gathering firewood in the poor neighborhood of Qali-e-Shater on the outskirts of Herat. Sunday, November 25th, Kalakhan village 12 miles north of Kabul. A farmer, Gholam Khader, 45, returns to his village at 7 a.m. and is killed as he walks on one of the CBU-87's 202 bomblets. Another is injured.25 A de-mining crew found 40 BLU-97 bomblets there on November 26th. Sunday, November 25th, One killed and one injured in Qarabagh, a front-line town heavily bombed by B-52s on November 9-10. The village of Denar Kheil was heavily cluster-bombed too. Tuesday, November 27th, village of Qala Shatar near Herat, a 12-year-old boy picks up the bright yellow soda-can sized bomblet, loses his arm. A second 8-year-old boy is injured. The boys were walking to school. Earlier, one civilian was killed and another injured in the village of Ishaq Sulaiman after picking up a cluster bomblet. Tuesday, November 27th, village of Zar Karez north of the Kandahar-Pakistan highway. A cluster bomb falls upon a semi-nomadic village, injuring two severely. Tuesaday, November 27th, Shamshad village in Nangarhar province. Three children were killed and seven were injured when a cluster bomblet exploded as the children were scavenging through heaps of scrap iron to sell to vendors. Shamshad had been heavily hit by U.S. planes on November 18-19th, killing ~40 villagers. December 3rd, village of Mengchuqur in northern Tokhar province. Islamudin, 20, is blown up when he picks up an unexploded cluster bomb. He had just returned, having fled in 1998. On his first day home, he had gone out to look at what remained of his sister's house and spotted a bright metal object. December 7th, village of Sakhsalmun, 4 kms. outside Herat. One boy was killed and one injured, Abul Nasir aged 14, when they played with a cluster bomb. December, village of Rabat west of Herat. The bomblets dropped in early November scattered in an area more than 1.6 kms away from a Taliban base. Three children injured when picking up cluster bomb, on their way to a wedding. Farmers are killed in areas they try to begin planting wheat and tending to vineyards. Late December. In a refugee camp in Herat, two children [aged 9 and 10] are killed and 2 others injured when they are collecting firewood and a BLU-97 bomblet explodes. Jan. 1-21. Mazar-i-Sharif area. The Halo Trust reports that seven children have been killed while playing with bomblets in a village near Mazar. A favorite U.S. weapon used in Afghanistan has been the 1,000 lb CBU-87 cluster bomb with its 202 BLU-97 bomblets. The BLU-97 cluster bomblet is one of the cheapest air-delivered weapons available, costing only ~$60 per unit. Unlike most American mines, cluster bomblets are not designed to break down over time as this would raise their low cost.3A single BLU-97 bomblet kills anyone within a 50 meter radius and severely injures a person within 100 meters. It is considered more dangerous than a conventional land mine. Peter Le Sueur, technical adviser to the UN's Mine Action Program Afghanistan [MAPA] describes this weapon, "the BLU 97 had three purposes -- to destroy armoured vehicles, kill people with shrapnel fragments and ignite fires in military targets such as munition dumps or oil depots." According to Le Sueur, one of its most savage features is its six-millimetre diamond-patterned steel jacket. "When the bomb explodes, the steel splits so you get hundreds of high-velocity steel fragments travelling at the speed of a rifle bullet. "They can kill or injure people from over 100 metres (330 feet) from the point of detonation".3 On New Year's Day, 2002, the United Nations' UNIC Director Eric Falt disclosed that U.S. planes had dropped cluster bombs in 103 cities of Afghanistan and possibly in another 25.5 The areas around Herat, the Shomali Plain and Tora Bora were particularly hard hit with cluster bombs. More than 600 cluster-bombs were dropped by U.S. planes in the Shomali plain region alone during the five weeks the U.S. planes pounded Taliban positions.6 The villages of Denar Kheil, Kalakhan and Qarabagh were particularly hard hit, being covered by BLU-97s. Early on November 10, 2001, CBU-87 bombs were dropped upon Denar Kheil in the Shomali Plain. Between January 9 - 20th , a de-mining team found 100 active BLU-97 bomblets in the village.7 It is believed that snow, sand and mud in Afghanistan make it even more likely that the bomblets are not exploding [hence the higher reported dud rate]. The CBU-87, 1,000 lb. bomb was developed by the Aerojet General Corporation in 1983 [entering service in 1986 replacing Vietnam era cluster bombs] which produced it along with the Alliant Techsystems Inc. [Hopkins, Minnesota]. Today, the CBU-87s are assembled in an Army factory in southern Kansas, from parts supplied by Honeywell [Minnesota] and Aerojet [Sacramento, California]. The 'mother bomb' carries 202 bright yellow bomblets, each the size of a soda can (see photo). The mother bomb explodes about 300-400 feet above earth and the 202 bomblets are dispersed with little parachutes. They are supposed to explode upon landing, but at least 5% do not. [] The CBU-87's 'footprint' is about 400x800 meters. Each bomblet, in turn, fragments into 300 steel fragments, making for a total of 60,600 fragments per CBU-87 bomb. One CBU-87 spreads bomblets over about three football fields. One B1-B 'Lancer' bomber can carry 30 CBU-87 bombs.8 A B-52 carries 40 CBU-87s, with a total hence of 8,080 BLU-97 cluster bomblets! ------------------ These are cluster bombs dropped on civilians. http://www.rawa.org/cluster2.htm
Yes. But they have a hard time making headway. There was a group called the Honeywell Project, that had a little success in curbing things at a local armaments plant in Minneapolis. They were of course ridiculed regularly, in the local media. One of the US innovations, copied by IIRC China and others, was to make mines and bomblets out of plastic, so they would be harder to find and remove. I'm not sure what the actual battle advantage of that was supposed to be - denial of ground, maybe like an airport, I think. The actual effect has been to make cleaning up after these little modern conflicts much more difficult. That also makes the fragments harder to find and remove from people, of course. The whole scene is basically evil. And just for PR value, a lot of the bomblets and such that Israel scattered around Lebanon are clearly identifiable as US made. Cluster bombs are not legal to use in "civilian" areas, by international treaty, I think. So of course the US and its allies don't do that.
No, what India is doing is applicable to this thread. Chapter 2 With the use of WMD or submunitions, the TBM’s lack of accuracy will be mitigated ..... Threat experts believe this will change because of India’s ballistic ... http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/docops/amd/Chapter-2.htm India is developing Tactical Ballistic Missiles with submunition capability.
Not unless you think India can exert some influence over US stockpiling, use or opposition to ban cluster bombs. If so, I am curious to know how.
This has influence on US stockpiling, sales and use of cluster bombs? It changes how many the US throws daily on Iraq or Afghanistan?
If you know a better way to destroy parked aircraft, a SAM site, an armor platoon, or massed troops, I'd love to hear it.
I heard that 100% of civilians killed in wars are killed by war. Obviously, we should ban wars. I'm looking to S.A.M. to take the lead on this initiative.
It would help to stop putting morons in charge of weapons. Or handing out guns to trigger happy idiots. On the other hand, if that is impossible why not just start at home? Lay a few cluster bombs around the yard, check out the suspense and thrill of having the family dog or the youngest kid step on it. Better yet, start a civil war and take pot shots at the neighbor. Or is it only fun when you are bombing other peoples children?
Now provide citation of this fact, and answer, What about the mines supplied around the world from India, that have been planted by who ever they sold them to, and have never been mapped. Russia produced more mines than any other country in the world and sold them to any middle east country that had the money, and was anti American, Saddam mined the borders between Iraq and Iran, and never removed them, Saddam mined the hell out of the borders between Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, and never remover them, guess who is removing them, or paying for their removal, the Coalition, the U.S., Britain, Poland, we have teams cleaning up the UXO, it is a ongoing work, made extremely more difficult by the fact that the Iraqi army under Saddam didn't map their mine fields, and abandoned them with out removing them. Now as for Vietnam, I can tell you that when we left a base we removed the mine fields that were in place, we didn't place mines, as bobby traps, for who ever walked on them, yes we didn't have a chance to clean up the Cluster Bombs, but we were pulled out of the country before we had a chance to do so. Since the civil war, the Civil War the U.S. has had special troops to clear UXO, from the fighting, we helped clean up the Battle Fields and Cities from WWI, we helped clear Europe, after WWII of UXO, We cleaned up Korea, after that Police action, we didn't leave our mine field in place when we moved our Bases in Vietnam, and didn't plant mines as booby traps, the mine fields were clearly marked. Now can the same be said of the Governments of the Middle East? the Terrorist? those who conduct asymmetrical warfare? the answer is NO!, and who come in and spends the money and lives to do so, The U.S., Britain, Poland, the Countries from the West. Now look here; http://disarm.igc.org/landmine.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6007/is_2001_Spring/ai_92044664/pg_24 69.) See generally Mennonite Central Committee, supra note 5. The Soviets used cluster bombs in Afghanistan, as did Israel in 1973 during their conflict with Egypt and Syria. See PROKOSCH, supra note 29, at 178-79. Additionally, the Mennonite Central Committee alleges that cluster munitions were also used in Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia (by Serbian forces), Checbnya (by Russia), Ethiopia, Georgia, Lebanon (by Israel), Nicaragua, Sierra Leone (by Nigeria), and Turkey (against Kurdish rebels). Mennonite Central Committee, supra note 5. And look here again India; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6007/is_2001_Spring/ai_92044664/pg_24 In 1999, India reportedly dropped cluster bombs on Pakistani targets in the Kashmir region. Surinder Oberoi, India Accepts Peace Talks with Pakistan but Continues Offensive, AGENCE FRANCE PRESS, June 8, 1999, cited in Wiebe, supra note 10, at n.36.
Largest stockpile, biggest arms trader, used in Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon NOW (still present from Gulf war, Vietnam and last years wars as well as present wars) War funded and extended for another year. Bill budgeting sales of cluster bombs.
