Finland plans to withdraw from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel landmines
Poland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said last month they will withdraw from the convention
Finland plans to withdraw from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel landmines
Poland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said last month they will withdraw from the convention
Anti personnel mines are used together with anti armor mines. They provide the crucial element of slowing de-mining by not allowing infantry (mobiks) doing that by hand. Used alone you could argue, that they are not so effective, but that works for any weaponry.
My argument is use whatever weaponry is effective. Even if it is old technology. Would be stupid otherwise.
Also arguing for rocket artillery to replace casual artillery is… Strange. Rocket artillery is expensive and it’s ammo is used up very quickly. I doubt any country can allow itself avoid regular artillery.
I didn’t. But rocket artillery is the common application of cluster ammunition, in particular when you talk effectiveness in Ukraine because then it’s indeed M30 GLMRS fired by M270 and M142. Tube artillery is already fragmentation-based… for all the exact same reasons.
If we are talking about cluster ammunition we are talking exclusively about existing older stocks of very specific systems. Because nobody would waste money on newly developing and producing those when nowadays the alternatives are -as I said before- more effective and safer, while also being cheaper.
Interesting, although most info about cluster munitions I’ve read were tube artillery (the leaving convention part). Since tube artillery has little in path correction. (There are a few, but most of it is not)
The countries will have to purchase or produce the ammunition, because they don’t have it stocked. Though.
Just to be clear:
I completely agree that fragmentation-based ammunition is much safer for everyone involved.
I can also agree how it might have some additional Effectiveness in offenisveness, just because your not mining your path forward at the same time.
I also agree that such artillery might have little use against combined-arms based combat USA uses.
But I’m yet to see proof, that it beats air released cluster munitions, when trenches or foxholes are involved. A.K.A. The Great War style warfare. (Which Russia seems to be oriented with)
Also with current transparent battlefield, any artillery and single-use drones reign supreme. So with the new META changes it does feel that we’re arguing about nothing substantial at this point.
That is the actual point though. Not so much substantial for the actual war going on now (besides “hey, we still have those stocks and they are already paid for”), very substantial for the child getting his hand ripped of by a DPICM dud 10 years down the line.