USAF moving past cluster munitions, CALCM cruise missile - 6/4/2015 - Flight Global: The US Air Force expects that production of a 500-pound, iron-spraying bomb, among other efforts, will eliminate the need for cluster munitions after 2018, in accordance with a timeline set by the Pentagon in 2008.
Although precision-strike weapons like hellfire missiles and small diameter bombs are more commonly used today, the head of Air Combat Command Gen Hawk Carlisle says there is still demand for cluster munition-type capabilities on the Korean Peninsula, where the US maintains a steady presence to deter an attack by the north. And as the January 1, 2019 deadline approaches for ending the use of cluster munitions, which case unintended harm to civilians, Carlisle says the air force has a “pretty good plan” for replacing them.
“We’re making advances and we don’t think we’ll have any problem meeting the timeline of 2018,” he says. “I’ll tell you, the Korean Peninsula is the place with the greatest demand for that capability. [We] need volume. In fact, the amount of cluster munitions we talk about in use is pretty small right now.”
Carlisle acknowledged one effort to produce an air-delivered “cast ductile iron” bomb, which sprays fragments over a wide area but does not leave behind unexploded bomblets.
