Click to expand Image Iranian ballistic cluster munitions are launched toward Tel Aviv, Israel on March 27, 2026. © 2026 Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, condemned on March 17 Iran’s “reckless” use of cluster munitions, calling it an “inherently indiscriminate type of munition.” Human Rights Watch has also confirmed Iran’s use of these weapons in March in populated civilian areas in Israel, which may amount to war crimes.While Admiral Cooper’s condemnation contradicts current US policy, it could reflect a shift in how the military views cluster munitions.His comments are in line with the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted by 124 states, which recognizes the weapons’ inherently indiscriminate nature. Cluster munitions typically open in the air, dispersing dozens or hundreds of explosive submunitions or bomblets over a wide area in a way that cannot discriminate between combatants and civilians. At times, bomblets fail to detonate on impact, in effect acting like landmines, waiting for someone to trigger them. Whenever they detonate, bomblets spread hundreds or even thousands of preformed metal fragments.Although the US military last used cluster munitions in a strike in Yemen in 2009, it has retained the right to use them and maintains stockpiles of these weapons.The most recent US policy, dating back to President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017, indefinitely delays a phased ban on the United States using what it terms “unreliable” types of cluster munitions. The ban—introduced in 2008 and meant to take full effect in 2019—defines “unreliable” cluster munitions as those with a detonation failure rate of more than 1 percent.And the United States has continued to sell and acquire other, more apparently “reliable,” types of the munitions, such as those which it says have a failure rate of less than 1 percent. In 2023, President Joe Biden approved a series of transfers of cluster munitions to Ukraine that were transferred via Germany and Poland. Reports emerged in February 2026 that the Pentagon had signed a deal worth at least US$210 million to acquire these weapons from an Israeli government-owned manufacturer.The United States should immediately destroy its stockpiles, cancel deals to buy more cluster munitions, and confirm the US won’t transfer or use these weapons. Unless such action is taken, any condemnation of an adversary’s use of the weapon will lack credibility