Dan Rice
April 8, 2024
When we started promoting cluster munitions for Ukraine in July 2022- no one supported the idea. The press wouldn’t touch it. (Except Erin Burnett CNN and Small Wars journal). The military press experts wouldn’t touch it. The defense industry and lobbyists wouldn’t touch it.
It took many months.
But General Milley supported it. And he made it happen.
And finally in Nov 2022 Turkey gave Ukraine 3,500 155mm cluster munitions in the battle of Bakhmut. That’s a small amount compared to the millions of high explosive rounds. And yet, they made a huge difference.
President Biden signed support 7 July 2023 for the US to provide cluster artillery rounds (DPICM). Then cluster rockets and missiles for himars October 2023.
These have made a tremendous difference.
Now they are proving themselves beyond any shadow of a doubt.
Congress should take a tactical pause.
Do an After Action Review about cluster munitions.
And consider opening production lines again.
To deter a war in Europe or Taiwan.
The best way to prevent a war is to build the strongest defense.
Ellie Cook with Newsweek shows how effective cluster munitions are against an armored Russian convoy.
Rare Thermal Vision Footage Shows Cluster Rounds Rain Down on Russian Tanks:
Video here on Newsweek:
A KA_27 crashed near Crimea.
A Mi-24 crashed also near Crimea.
The effectivenesy of the Hawk missile systems, on the other hand, is very much in doubt. I don’t remember any report of a successful shootdown by one of these batteries. Still, this:
“US to assist Ukraine with repair of HAWK air defense systems through Foreign Military Sale”
https://mil.in.ua/en/news/us-to-assist-ukraine-with-repair-of-hawk-air-defense-systems-through-foreign-military-sale/
Excuse me please – WHAT?!? A pricetag of an effing 138 millions for upgrade parts for that system, which have been decades-long out of use by the US and gathered dust in some warehouses? Doesn’t this exceed the market value of the few launchers the Ukraine has got several times? And it did take the damn Pentagon a whole year or so to come up with this solution to the pathetically unperforming systems? What idiocy! I do think that money would be much better spent on more Patriot missiles, which are urgently needed! 😠
Grrr, I’m still fuming, about the rip-off pricetag and the stubborness of Pentagon ofgicials still trying to prove that the delivery of Hawk launchers hasn’t been an embarassing flop. Which leads to my question: Doesn’t Ukraine have a say in such arms deliveries? Hawk spare parts can’t have been high on Syrsky’s list, certainly below more Patriot, Sparrow and Amraam missiles. Aren’t there AFU liasion officers at the Pentagon, in order to ensure the most effective use of the limited (to 500 millions, afaik) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program? There should be! 😠
Ok, there may have been one successful usage, I now found:
“Ukraine Is Deploying This Classic American Missile, Bringing a Cold Warrior Back to Life”
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a46514155/ukraine-is-deploying-the-hawk/
Still, 138 millions for spare parts that the US have no use for and that nobody else wants anymore? How brazen is that? And this, for the least successful AA system in use in Ukraine, while the reserves of stellar, indispensable Patriot missiles are running dangerously short! What the hell are they thinking in the Pentagon and the White House? 😠