Unexploded Weapons Clearance Plan Progresses

Jeff Abramson

The Department of State opened a bidding process April 29 to solicit plans for a new quick-reaction force that would be able to handle threats to civilians from unexploded cluster bombs and other explosive remnants of war (ERW). U.S. officials hope that the privately run force could begin operating later this year with the capability to deploy anywhere in the world within 48 hours.

The rationale for the force is wrapped up in the ongoing debate about addressing the effects of cluster munitions, which are bombs, rockets, and artillery shells that disperse smaller submunitions over broad areas and sometime fail to explode and later maim or kill civilians if disturbed. (See ACT, March 2008.) On May 21, Stephen Mull, acting assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, reiterated the administration's position that a narrow focus on such munitions is ill advised. Instead, he said, "the humanitarian issues brought on by cluster munitions are really a small part of a much larger problem that we think the whole world needs to work on together." Toward that end, the quick-reaction force is tasked with responding to humanitarian and destruction needs associated with a wide range of so-called remnants of war.

Katherine Baker, a U.S. delegation member to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), first discussed the force at a CCW meeting on Jan. 16, saying it would "deal holistically with explosive remnants of war, small arms and light weapons, cluster munitions, landmines, man-portable air defense systems, and other types of conventional weapons found in countries suffering from the legacy of war." Washington prefers to address cluster munitions and other ERW within the CCW process. The United States has abstained from participating in a separate international effort known as the Oslo process, which May 30 in Dublin concluded treaty text limiting cluster munitions.

On April 29, the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement released a solicitation asking for private companies to bid on the quick-reaction force. Force requirements include the ability to have an advance reconnaissance team on-site anywhere in the world within 48 hours and an operational force in place within 14 days.

The size and cost of the force is not specified in the solicitation. In some ways, it may be an evolution of a quick-reaction demining program that ended last year. That force, operated by private contractor RONCO Consulting Corporation, consisted of approximately 40 demining personnel and support infrastructure. Between 2001 and 2007, it deployed to Iraq, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, and Sudan, but dealt most specifically with mines, rather than the broader range of conventional weapons and unexploded ordnance envisioned for the new force.

The solicitation closes June 13. As of May 27, more than a dozen companies had added their names to an interested vendor list, suggesting that they may submit proposals to operate the force.

On May 21, Richard Kidd, director of the weapons removal and abatement office, told Arms Control Today that he is hopeful this asset could be operational as early as this fall. He also indicated that he has already been in conversation with UN officials about how to make it available to global efforts. The goal, he said, is to be able to "respond to any conventional weapons emergency" anywhere in the world. He added that "most of the weapons out there are not U.S. origin, not U.S. deployed, and not U.S. made."