India strikes deal with US for cluster bombs

The Indian Air Force will soon receive one of the most lethal bombs in the world. The US government announced on Thursday that it had cleared the sale of 512 CBU-105 sensor-fused bombs to India by awarding a $257.7-million contract to Textron Systems Corporation, under foreign military sales (FMS) programme.

Combat proven on April 2, 2003, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the US made sensor-fused bombs were fired from long-range, strike fighter aircrafts and took out multiple Iraqi tanks in a single pass.

Defence analysts said the Indian Air Force could use its Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets to launch the half-ton CBU-105 cluster bombs to devastating effect.

India originally requested the sale in 2008 and estimated the cost at $375 million for the bombs and associated equipment. While making a case for the sale, the Pentagon told the US Congress that the bombs would help India “enhance its defensive ability to counter ground-armoured threats. The missiles will assist the air force to develop and enhance standardisation and operational ability with the United States”.

Equipped with active laser sensors on each warhead, one cluster bomb unit can simultaneously detect and engage many fixed 
and moving land combat targets within a specific coverage area.

Each CBU-105 warhead carries 10 computer-controlled, radar-equipped “bomblets” or “submunitions” over an area; the bomb is dropped using a parachute and it seeks out armored tanks to destroy. Defence experts said the cluster bombs have three options — if an armored tank is spotted, the guidance system fires a charge at the tank; if there are no tanks the bomblets rip into cars within 100 metres; if there are no cars they self-detonate.

Over a hundred countries have signed the convention on cluster munitions (CCM) treaty, which prohibits the use of bombs like the CBU-105, as it releases small bomblets over a wide area posing high risks to civilians during attacks. India and the US are not signatories to the convention.