cluster munitions
Scattering explosive weapons
Cluster munitions are weapons that release multiple smaller submunitions—bomblets or mines—over a wide area.
Dropped from aircraft or fired from artillery, they scatter explosives across a target zone, making them effective against dispersed troops or vehicles but notorious for civilian casualties.
Many submunitions fail to detonate on impact, leaving unexploded ordnance that kills and maims long after conflicts end.
An international treaty bans their use, though major military powers have not signed it.
- submunitionsDeployed from carrier weapon
- unexploded ordnanceMilitary ammunition that failed to detonate
- bombletsSmall munitions from clusters
- ordnanceMilitary weapons collectively
- explosiveProne to sudden detonation
shrapnel · dud · bomb disposal · civilian casualties · collateral damage · warhead · dispenser · carpet bombing · landmines · disarmament · Laos · treaty violations · payload · Gulf War · missiles · white phosphorus · Vietnam War · Geneva Convention
- arms controlarms control, disarmament, nonproliferation, arms deals, arms reduction
- Munitionsbombs, missiles, bullets, ordnance, warheads
- Arms Treatiesdisarmament, arms limitation, arms reduction, weapons ban, weapon bans
- weaponsknife, gun, sword, swords, rifle
cluster munitionssmart bombs
Self-directing precision weapons
surgical strikes · guided missiles · cruise missiles · sniper rifle · sniper fire
cluster, clusters, clustered, clustering, munition, munitions, ammunition