On Feb. 6, The Intercept reported that in September, the Pentagon signed a $210 million contract with an Israeli company called Tomer for the supply of a 155mm cluster munition that the U.S. Army calls the XM1208. The shells are designed to replace decades-old and often defective cluster shells that left live explosives scattered across Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, and other nations, The Intercept notes.
These new cluster shells are designed to have a dud rate—or risk of failure to explode—of less than 1%. They rely on more complex fuses and self-destruct features to reduce long-term danger to civilians, according to army procurement documents and weapons experts. But researchers say those low failure rates in testing do not reflect real-world performance, and advocates argue that cluster weapons’ battlefield effectiveness cannot justify their humanitarian costs.
