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Cluster munition

Munition containing multiple submunitions meant to disperse effects of the munitions

A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Cluster munitions are air-dropped or ground-launched weapons. They release a number of smaller submunitions with the intention to kill enemy personnel or destroy vehicles. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. Other cluster munitions are designed to destroy runways or electric power transmission lines. Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. Unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians and unintended targets long after a conflict has ended and are costly to locate and remove. This failure rate ranges from two percent to over 40 percent. Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2008. The Convention entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on 1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 states. As of 10 February 2022, a total of 123 states have joined the Convention, as 110 states parties and 13 signatories.