US set to send cluster bombs to Ukraine in latest military package: report

The U.S. is expected Friday to announce its plans to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs in a new military package, according to The Associated Press.

Cluster bombs, which are designed to explode and send multiple small munitions over a wide area, are relatively controversial due to the risk that unexploded bombs can injure or kill civilians.

The Pentagon plans to send Kyiv munitions with a lower “dud rate,” or the rate at which they fail to explode, in order to reduce the threat to civilians, according to the AP. The cluster bombs will reportedly have a dud rate of less than 3 percent.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder specified at a press briefing Thursday that the Pentagon is not considering providing cluster munitions with a dud rate greater than 2.35 percent and said military officials would “be carefully selecting rounds with lower dud rates for which we have recent testing data.”

Kyiv has been asking for cluster bombs since last year, but Washington had held off. More than 100 countries — notably excluding the U.S., Russia and Ukraine — have signed a 2008 treaty barring the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of such munitions.

In addition to the cluster bombs, the $800 million military package set to be announced Friday will also include Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, as well as ammunition for howitzers and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, the AP reported.