{"id":12958,"date":"2025-06-21T14:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T09:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=12958"},"modified":"2025-06-21T15:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T10:25:23","slug":"what-are-cluster-bombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-are-cluster-bombs\/","title":{"rendered":"Cluster Bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cluster Bombs Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n

Iran\u2019s reported use of a cluster bomb during a missile strike on Israel has raised concerns over the nature and dangers of these weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n

About Cluster Bombs<\/b><\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Cluster bombs, also called <\/span>cluster munitions, <\/b>are <\/span>explosive weapons that disperse smaller bombs,<\/b> known as <\/span>submunitions or bomblets, over a wide area before impact.<\/b><\/li>\n
  • These <\/span>bomblets <\/b>are designed to <\/span>explode upon hitting the ground or after a delay.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n
  • However, <\/span>many fail to detonate,<\/b> remaining live <\/b>and lethal <\/span>for months or even years, <\/b>posing long-term risks to civilians.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Cluster bombs are e<\/span>ither air-dropped or ground-launched<\/b> and can saturate areas as large as several football fields, making them particularly <\/span>lethal in densely populated areas.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n
  • The <\/span>submunitions<\/b>, <\/span>often grenade-sized<\/b> with fins or streamers for stabilisation, are designed to <\/span>cause damage to both personnel and unarmoured vehicles<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Some modern versions, like the US-made DPICM, feature dual-purpose charges for added effect.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • But the<\/span> biggest controversy<\/b> lies <\/span>in their high \u201cdud rate\u201d, failure to explode on impact, <\/b>which turns them into de facto landmines. Estimates of <\/span>dud rates vary widely,<\/b> from as low as <\/span>2 percent to as high as 40 percent.<\/b><\/li>\n
  • The <\/span>explosive bomblets<\/b>, when deployed over a wide area, <\/span>cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians.<\/b> This makes their use in populated regions particularly devastating.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The <\/span>2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM<\/b>), which entered into force in 2010, <\/span>bans the use, development, production, <\/b>acquisition, and<\/span> transfer of cluster munitions.\u00a0<\/b>\n
      \n
    • So far, <\/span>111 countries and 12 other entities have signed <\/b>the treaty.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    • But<\/span> key nations, <\/b>including<\/span> Israel, Iran, the United States, Russia, China, and India,<\/b> have <\/span>not joined.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n
    • As per the United Nations, 99% of declared global stockpiles have been destroyed under the treaty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Cluster bomb is a weapon designed to release multiple smaller submunitions over a wide area, causing widespread damage and posing risks to civilians. Read more about Cluster Bombs, Meaning, Bans, Convention, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":51204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[957,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-12958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-cluster-bombs","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}