There are piles of cluster ammunition called DPICM that are stored in the warehouses of the US Army, and these weapons would be of great help to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their fight against the russian invasion. Some American defense officials agree on that point, Reuters reports citing Pentagon.
As noted by Laura Cooper, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, the Pentagon's military analysts "have confirmed that DPICMs would be useful especially against dug in russian positions on the battlefield."
Read more: Turkey Supplied Ukraine With the DPICM Cluster Shells
However, the provision of this ammunition has faced both restrictions by the Congress imposed on the transfer of this type of weapon and "concerns about allied unity," Cooper says. On that note, we can recall that Estonia also has cluster munitions that it could give to Ukraine but needed Germany's approval for that. Back then, there were the same concerns of disagreement between the allies.
Both Germany and France adopted a firm stance against the US supplying DPICM munitions to Ukraine. The pretext is "traditional" – they are wary of "escalation."
On the other hand, if the US Congress does greenlight the transfer of cluster ammunition to Ukraine, it would not only level-up the existing capabilities available to the Ukrainian army but also would help to mitigate the deficit of 155mm artillery rounds in general – since there are as many as 3 mln DPICMs in the US stocks.
Read more: US has Given One Million Artillery Rounds to Ukraine: How Much is it, Really?
