§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what were the(a) types and (b) quantities of cluster bombs used during the trials at Luce Bay in 1999; [111074]
(2) on what dates in 1999 were live cluster bombs used in trials at Luce Bay; [111075]
(3) what was the purpose of the trials using live cluster bombs at Luce Bay in 1999. [111076]
§ Mr. SpellarThe type of cluster bomb used during the trials at Luce Bay in 1999 was the 600lb RBL 755 version. A total of 52 bombs were used of which 40 were inert and 12 were live. The live bombs were dropped on 6 and 7 April 1999. The purpose of the trials was to evaluate the performance of the bombs in response to an Urgent Operational Requirement, in direct support of UK882W participation in the NATO action in Kosovo. To evaluate the performance of this weapon it was necessary to release them under a range of conditions, e.g. height, speed, altitude and from different aircraft types. This required a number of weapons to achieve all these parameters. While most of these conditions could be met using the available supply of inert bombs it was necessary to use some live variants to complete the series of trials. Although these weapons contained live bomblets, they were configured so that they were not deployed during flight and entered the water intact.