§ Joan RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what recent independent evidence has been gathered by his Department on failure rates of cluster munitions; [116812]
(2) what target his Department has set for a failure rate in cluster munitions. [116817]
§ Mr. Ingram[holding answer 5 June 2003]: Weapons containing cluster munitions are currently in service with the Army and Royal Air Force. The Army systems consist of Shell 155mm HE Extended Range Bomblet Shell (ERBS) and Multiple Launch Rocket System.
Acceptance tests for the latest purchase of Shell 155mm HE ERBS have confirmed a maximum failure rate of 2 per cent., which is consistent with the results of Director Royal Artillery tests of 1994. The target reliability rate for ERBS is not less than 95 per cent.
For the MLRS, US Government test reports, based on 15 years worth of data, indicate a failure rate of between 5 and 10 per cent., dependent on ground conditions and range. Although there is no target failure rate for the current MLRS system, its replacement (the future GMLRS Area Effects Munition (AEM)) due in service in 2007, has a target failure rate of less than 1 per cent. for bomblet sub-munitions.
53WThe RAF system consists of the BL755 cluster bomb, routine surveillance of a representative sample of weapons is carried out by the Design Authority (Insys Ltd.) on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. Recent statistics show an overall failure rate of 6 per cent. which is in line with expectations.