Early in the war, the Biden administration alleged that Russia was using cluster bombs and claimed this would be a “war crime” if true. Now Biden is trying to counter critics by claiming that U.S. cluster bombs, with an alleged dud rate of 2.5%, have a lower dud rate than Russia’s bombs.
No joke necessary.
The 2.5% is a number they pulled out of their ass. The real number is close to 10-15% (these are not new munitions, they were manufactured in the 80s and the numbers come from tests back then).
Even if 2.5% is true, each bomb carries around 200 bomblets. So for every bomb used, 5 bomblets will remain unexploded until someone stumbles upon it. The bomblets are also small, spherical and usually painted bright green or yellow. Kids who found them before, and survived, reported they thought they were tennis balls and used them to play.
Furthermore, there’s a law in the US that prohibits exporting cluster munitions with more than 1% dud rate. Of course, Biden has said they’ll just bypass that law. Meaning this is illegal both internationally and nationally for the US.
Finally, the US is saying that Ukrainians assured them they would not use them “irresponsibly”. However 14000 Donbass, Donyetsk and Crimea residents would tend to disagree if they were still alive today.
(edit: and even if the Ukrainians try to use them "responsibly, these munitions are highly innacurate by nature and Ukraine does not have and will not have the logistical capacity to clear out duds/
If both munitions and the tests were from the 80’s i assume the number would be even higher now since 40 years of deterioration.
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/arms/cluster031803.htm
This a report from 2003 regarding all US cluster munitions. It’s largely based on US Pentagon reports. The specific munitions the US is sending to Ukraine are the 155mm DPICM M483A1 & M864 artillery projectiles (2nd bullet point on the list). The 14% dud rate it reports is from a 2000 study, which admits the munitions are old which is what caused a higher-than-expected dud rate when used in the field.
So yes, assuming a linear half-life, the dud rate of these munitions is probably closer to 30% now (which, by the way, is the number the US uses to accuse Russia for its use of cluster munition and their high dud rate).
They aren’t even pretending in their projections anymore…