In a video posted on social media on Monday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the leader of U.S. Central Command, condemned a recent Iranian cluster munition attack on Israel.
Calling them “an inherently indiscriminate type of munition,” Admiral Cooper said the “Iranian regime” had launched “a reckless attack against civilian neighborhoods in Tel Aviv.” A video showed dots of light streaking through the night sky from an incoming missile.
“We join countries across the region in condemning this aggression,” he added.
The first Trump administration, however, defended the use of cluster munitions in a policy that remains in effect today.
Cluster munitions are a class of military ordnance that breaks apart in midair and scatters smaller explosive or incendiary weapons, often called bomblets, over a large area. About 20 percent of those bomblets fail to explode on impact but can still explode if discovered even decades later.
In November 2017, Patrick M. Shanahan, who was serving as the deputy secretary of defense at the time, signed a memo calling cluster munitions “legitimate weapons with clear military utility.”
His memo reversed an earlier Pentagon decision to ban the use of its existing arsenal of cluster weapons by 2019 because of the harm they pose to civilians.
In 2008, the defense secretary at the time, Robert M. Gates, signed a policy giving the Pentagon 10 years to seek alternatives to its cluster weapons, which were prone to failure and posed a hazard to civilians in conflict areas. That memo said newer cluster munitions must be designed so that less than 1 percent of the dozens or hundreds of bomblets they release remain on the ground as hazardous duds that could still explode.
Mr. Gates said that for the next decade, only the four-star combatant commanders who direct military operations over specific parts of the globe could authorize the use of older cluster munitions. After that time, the use of older cluster weapons would have been permanently banned without exception.
Mr. Shanahan’s memo upended those deadlines, making the munitions available to commanders indefinitely. Almost a year later, he cited the threat of North Korea as a reason for keeping them in service.
The office of the secretary of defense did not respond to a request for comment about the admiral’s remarks on Monday.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which took effect in 2010, bans their use because of the harm they pose to noncombatants. More than 100 countries have signed that treaty, though not the United States, Russia, Israel or Iran.
According to government records, the last known instance of U.S. forces using cluster weapons was in December 2009, when Navy warships launched Tomahawk cruise missiles carrying explosive bomblets at suspected Qaeda camps in Yemen.
The Biden administration made no public effort to reverse Mr. Shanahan’s 2017 decision, ultimately transferring large numbers of cluster munitions to Ukraine for use in its war with Russia. Russian forces have used the weapons extensively in Ukraine.
In July 2023, the White House ordered the transfer of “dual-purpose improved conventional munition” artillery shells to Ukraine, each containing 88 grenades. A second shipment was sent in March 2024.
In November 2024, the Pentagon acknowledged sending Ukraine two separate shipments of cluster munition artillery shells that each dispense 36 small antipersonnel land mines.
By December 2024, the Biden administration had provided Kyiv with more than 100,000 155-millimeter shells that each contained nine small antitank mines.
Iran launched a similar attack with cluster munitions against Israel in June.
The most recent congressional effort to ban the Pentagon from using cluster munitions failed in the House in June 2024 by a vote of 129 to 284.
John Ismay is a reporter covering the Pentagon for The Times. He served as an explosive ordnance disposal officer in the U.S. Navy.
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