According to Jack Detsch in Foreign Policy, Turkey began sending Ukraine a form of U.S.-designed, artillery-fired cluster rounds in late 2022, giving Kyiv a powerful—but controversial—weapon to destroy Russian tanks and kill troops on the battlefield.
Turkey began sending the first batches of so-called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICMs) in November 2022, which were made during the Cold War era under a co-production agreement with the United States. As Jack Detsch recalls, this kind of ammunition is designed to destroy tanks by bursting into smaller submunitions, which can linger on the battlefield for years if they do not immediately explode. Each round scatters about 88 bomblets. The United States is barred from exporting DPICMs under U.S. law because of its high dud rate.
Turkey has sought to keep this quiet for months, Jack Detsch writes, while it has been supporting Ukraine with armed Bayraktar TB2 drones that helped break Russia’s advance on Kyiv. Simultaneously, Turkey was purchasing Russian weapons for itself, angering NATO in the process.
Although Turkey has not shared information on the quantities of cluster munitions in its stockpile, the Ankara-based Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) has produced an extended-range artillery projectile in the past that can be fired out of 155 mm cannons with self-destructing DPICM submunitions as well as similar projectiles that are under license from the United States. Roketsan, another major Turkish weapons producer, once made TRK-122 rockets for 122 mm artillery systems that also scatter DPICM submunitions. Slovakia, Chile, and the United States have transferred cluster munitions to Turkey in the past, Jack Detsch reports.