Turkey Sending Banned Munitions to Ukraine

A controversial artillery round is being used effectively against Russian forces.

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Jack Detsch and Robbie Gramer report for Foreign Policy that “Turkey Is Sending Cold War-Era Cluster Bombs to Ukraine.”

Turkey began sending Ukraine a form of U.S.-designed, artillery-fired cluster bomb in late 2022 after months of Kyiv pleading with the Biden administration for the munitions, current and former U.S. and European officials familiar with the decision told Foreign Policy, giving Kyiv a powerful—but controversial—weapon to destroy Russian tanks and kill troops on the battlefield.

The NATO ally began sending the first batches of so-called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICMs) in November 2022, which were made during the Cold War era under a co-production agreement with the United States. The weapons are designed to destroy tanks by bursting into smaller submunitions, which can linger on the battlefield for years if they do not immediately explode. Each round scatters about 88 bomblets. The United States is barred from exporting DPICMs under U.S. law because of its high dud rate.

The move, which Turkey has sought to keep quiet for months, also highlights the high-wire act that Ankara has played throughout the conflict: supporting Ukraine with armed Bayraktar TB2 drones that helped break Russia’s advance on Kyiv and playing diplomatic middleman for the United Nations-brokered deal to export grain from the Ukrainian port of Odesa, all while purchasing Russian weapons for itself and angering NATO in the process. It was not immediately clear if the Turkish surface-to-surface weapons had been used in combat.

“After the U.S. denied [Ukraine] access to cluster munitions, Turkey was the only place they could get them,” said one source briefed on the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It just shows how even as Turkey cozies up to Russia in some respects, it’s become a really important supporter for Ukraine militarily.”

Neither the Turkish Embassy in Washington nor the Ukrainian defense ministry responded to Foreign Policy’s request for comment. But Turkey’s delivery of DPICMs showcases how Ankara has played an outsized role in supplying weapons to Ukraine to break Russia’s full-scale invasion at critical moments in the war since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assault in February 2022.

The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones helped halt Russian armored convoys converging on Kyiv in the early days of the war, and they reportedly had a role in assisting Ukraine’s sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva, then the flagship of the Black Sea fleet. Turkish analysts also believe that Turkey is quietly running a drone bridge from Corlu air base near the Bayraktar TB2 factory, where weapons are shipped to Poland and moved to Ukraine. And Turkey has walked a tight line on weapons deliveries: Even as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his brass in Ankara have tried to keep them quiet, some of their close confidantes—including the president’s son-in-law, who is chair of the board of the company that manufactures Bayraktar TB2s—have openly championed the drone’s prowess on the battlefield.

Although Turkey has not shared information on the quantities of cluster munitions in its stockpile, the Ankara-based Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation has produced an extended-range artillery projectile in the past that can be fired out of 155 mm cannons with self-destructing DPICM submunitions as well as similar projectiles that are under license from the United States. Roketsan, another major Turkish weapons producer, once made TRK-122 rockets for 122 mm artillery systems that also scatter DPICM submunitions. Slovakia, Chile, and the United States have transferred cluster munitions to Turkey in the past.

[…]

Some within the U.S. Defense Department and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff have advocated for the move after intense lobbying from Congress and top Ukrainian officials, including Ukrainian military chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, dating back to the late summer. But sending the weapons has been a bridge too far after U.S. President Joe Biden announced last year that the United States would no longer produce, acquire, or replace antipersonnel mines or use them anywhere outside of the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. military has not used cluster munitions in combat since its invasion of Iraq in 2003, except for a single instance in Yemen more than a decade ago, and it has not exported the weapons since 2015. Russia, which is also not a signatory to the United Nations cluster munitions convention, has been a prolific user of the weapons since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February: Preliminary data cited by Human Rights Watch showed at least 689 civilian casualties from cluster munition attacks in Ukraine from February to July 2022. Ukrainian forces have used cluster munition rockets on at least two occasions. 

Biden has been under pressure from progressive Democrats in Congress to take further steps to prohibit their use. In a letter to the White House in December 2022, spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Bill Keating, 10 House and Senate lawmakers urged Biden to begin destroying U.S. stockpiles of cluster munitions. “If the United States used cluster munitions today we would be criticized as we have condemned the Russians for using them in Ukraine,” Keating and congressional allies wrote to Biden. “We should be leading the global effort to rid the world of these weapons, not continuing to stockpile them.”

[…]

Turkey, like the United States, is not a member of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Yet experts fear that the cleanup headache that DPICMs could cause might exacerbate the generational mine and cluster bomb mess that the Russian military has already left nearly a year after the Kremlin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Unlike traditional landmines, cluster munitions aren’t often neatly planted in rows that can be easily surveyed and cleared. Rather, they scatter more randomly when fired and have a high dud rate. Experts worry that because of its small size, akin to a D-cell battery, they are too unsafe to destroy en masse, and innocent civilians could mistakenly pick them up, something that happened during the 2006 Lebanon War.

“Ukraine already has a massive problem on its hands, and it’s only magnifying it by introducing this weapon,” Hiznay said. “They’re going to end up with a situation where the contamination is like lasagna: It’s layered upon each other over time.”

I was an MLRS platoon leader during the first Gulf War and the DPICM was our primary munition. The dual-purpose in the nomenclature is that the bomblets are designed to kill both armored vehicles (tanks, self-propelled howitzers, command post vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, etc.) and enemy soldiers. They’re incredibly effective in a conventional force-on-force fight and I certainly understand why Ukraine wants them.

At the same time, we learned in the aftermath of the war that the bomblets had a high dud rate. And what that means is that, long after the fighting stops, unexploded ordnance poses a threat to civilians.

Not long after the war, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction went into effect. As with many things in international law, the United States is not an official party to the Convention but nonetheless abides by it—with the narrow exception of the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), where our military leadership has judged that land mines deter North Korean aggression with essentially no risk to noncombatants, who are extremely unlikely to wander into the area.

The munitions that we used during the Gulf War were deemed by Pentagon leaders to fall within the remit of the Convention and, even though we’re not officially a party, we have nonetheless removed them from the active inventory. We have, however, kept them stockpiled, presumably thinking that they might be necessary in a war with China or Russia.

Were it any other NATO ally, I would say, without hesitation, that this move would not have been made without tacit approval by the Biden administration. With Turkey, I have no such confidence.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Mikey says:

    At the same time, we learned in the aftermath of the war that the bomblets had a high dud rate.

    I still remember when we moved around southern Iraq after the land phase of Desert Storm we saw so many unexploded DPICM bomblets.

    Another munition that had a high dud rate was the CBU-87 the Air Force dropped, if you’re not familiar it is similar in principle to the DPICM except it’s the size of a soda can.

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  2. Scott says:

    Back in December, I ran across this article in Defense News: Turkey’s future unmanned fighter jet conducts first flight

    What first caught my eye was the idea of an unmanned fighter jet.

    But further in the article was this sentence:

    It’s powered by AI-322F turbofan engines from Ukraine’s Ivchenko-Progress company.

    Further googling reveals an increasing and important defense industry cooperation between Turkey and Ukraine.

    Turkiye is resisting Russian pressure and I don’t think it is a case of playing both sides against each other.

    So expect more of this kind of interaction.

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  3. SC_Birdflyte says:

    I confess an inability to probe the inner recesses of Erdogan’s mind. He’s putting obstacles in the way of Sweden joining NATO because of differences of opinion over Kurdish groups, yet he’s selling munitions to Ukraine (albeit munitions now outlawed).

  4. Stormy Dragon says:

    @SC_Birdflyte:

    UKRAINE’S CONSEQUENCES ARE FINALLY SPREADING TO SYRIA

    An Emboldened Turkey

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s adroit maneuvers since the Russian invasion — positioning Ankara as a mediator between Russia and the West, arming Ukraine with drones, providing a safe haven for Russian businesses and citizens, and leveraging Turkey’s NATO membership to hold Swedish and Finnish accession hostage — has shifted the power dynamic with Russia in Ankara’s favor. An emboldened Turkey is seeking to press this advantage in Syria. Accusing Kurdish elements of a Nov. 13 terrorist attack in Istanbul, Erdogan intensified threats to launch another incursion into northeast Syria amidst a heightened barrage of air and drones strikes. To date, Russia has managed to keep Turkish ambitions in check, but for how long?

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  5. gVOR08 says:

    A little off topic, but speaking of mines, If the Russians succeed in capturing the salt mine entrances north of Bakhmut, I wouldn’t want to be one of the first Russians to enter.

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  6. JohnSF says:

    In other news from Ukraine: the much touted Sergei Surovikin has been demoted from overall theatre command, replaced by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff.
    Surovikin will apparently now be Gerasimov’s deputy.

    I wonder if this is about military policy, or more about politics.
    Interesting that Putin’ in remarks today very pointedly noted Russia was not in full control of Soledar, and said nothing about it being a “breakthrough” north of Bakhmut.
    Rather in contrast to the line being put out by Prigozhin’s Wagner; and Surovikin has appeared to have better relations with Prigozhin (and Kadyrov) than Soigu/Gerasimov and Army General Staff do.

    Or alternatively; it could be handing the poisoned chalice to Gerasimov?

    On the military side, it might reflect possible concern theat Surovikin’s operational strategy is not working.
    If that is, as it appears, replaying Syria with counter civil missile strikes replacing the Russian air force, and Prigozhin and his mercs/convicts standing in for Qasem Soleimani and the Pasdaran/Hezbollah/Syrian Army role.
    Problem for Surovikin and Prigozhin: the Ukrainians play in a whole different league to the Syrian rebel militia.

  7. Gustopher says:

    “Ukraine already has a massive problem on its hands, and it’s only magnifying it by introducing this weapon,” Hiznay said. “They’re going to end up with a situation where the contamination is like lasagna: It’s layered upon each other over time.”

    They already have a major cleanup problem, and if it helps fight off the Russian occupiers… it doesn’t seem like a terrible choice.

    Using cluster munitions against invaders on your own land is probably the least morally offensive way to use cluster munitions.

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