Policy

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The UAE did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention in 2008 and it has never made a public statement on its policy on cluster munitions.

In September 2011, the UAE attended the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Beirut, Lebanon as an observer, its first and only participation at a meeting of the convention. The UAE did not make any statements at the meeting, but its head of delegation informed the Monitor that the government fully supports the humanitarian aspects of the convention and is studying its position on joining.[1]

The UAE has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[2]

The UAE is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. The UAE is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The UAE is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. In September 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor that the UAE has never produced or used cluster munitions.[3]

The UAE has a stockpile of cluster munitions imported from several sources, including surface-fired rockets and missiles as well as air-dropped bombs.

In 1999, the United States (US) sold the UAE 1,800 CBU-87 bombs (each containing 202 BLU-97 submunitions).[4] In September 2006, the US announced the sale of large amounts of cluster munitions to the UAE: 101 M39A1 ATACMS missiles (each containing 300 M74 submunitions), 104 M26 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) rocket pods (each pod contains six rockets, each rocket contains 644 M77 dual-purpose improved conventional munition [DPICM] submunitions), and 130 M30 GMLRS DPICM rocket pods.[5]

Following the September 2006 deal, it was reported in March 2009 that the US intended to produce and export 780 M30 GMLRS rockets (each with 404 M101 DPICM submunitions) to the UAE.[6] Under US legislation signed into law on 11 March 2009, the export of these cluster munitions is prohibited. However, an army official said that the deal was signed in 2007, well before the export ban legislation was introduced, and that the army obtained legal opinions that confirm the validity of the final sale.[7]

In 2006–2007, Turkey sold to the UAE 3,020 TRK-122 122mm unguided surface-to-surface rockets, each containing 56 M85 DPICM submunitions.[8]

Additionally, Textron Defense Systems of the US delivered an unknown number of CBU-105 sensor-fuzed weapons, valued at US$57 million, to the UAE in June 2010. The contract for the sale was signed in November 2007.[9] Sensor-fuzed weapons are cluster munitions that are prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but export is allowed under US law because they have a reported failure rate of less than 1%.

Jane’s Information Group reports that British-made BL-755 bombs are also in service with the UAE air force.[10] Additionally Jane’s lists the UAE as possessing the Hydra-70 air-to-surface unguided rocket system, but it is not known if this stockpile includes the M261 multipurpose submunition variant.[11]

The UAE is also reported to possess 122mm Type-90 and 330mm Smerch surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the UAE possesses rockets with submunition payloads.[12]