Summary

Non-signatory Poland shares the humanitarian concerns raised by cluster munitions, but has not taken any steps to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Poland last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2014. It abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Poland sees military utility in cluster munitions, but has never used them outside of training. It has produced cluster munitions, but has never exported them. Poland has detailed the types of cluster munitions that it has stockpiled, but has not provided information on the quantities.

Policy

The Republic of Poland has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In April 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the “humanitarian problems which result from the use of cluster munitions,” but said that Poland is “currently unable” to join the convention. The letter stated that Poland’s accession “would imply the immediate need to forgo important capability of the Polish Armed Forces, thereby weakening our country’s defense capacity, which is not acceptable in light of the current security environment.”[1]

Poland participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but made clear from the outset that it could not support a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions.[2] Poland participated as an observer at the convention’s negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and at the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[3]

Poland participated as an observer at the first three Meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2010–2012, as well as at intersessional meetings in 2013–2014. It did not attend the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, and has not participated in a meeting of the convention since then. Poland was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

Poland abstained from voting on a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible” in December 2021.[4] Poland has abstained from the vote on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

In 2015–2018, Poland provided a joint UNGA statement on cluster munitions on behalf of itself and other European Union (EU) member states that are not party to the convention—Estonia, Finland, Greece, and Romania—that reiterated their need to meet their own “legitimate security concerns and military and defence needs.”[5] Poland has not provided another UNGA statement on behalf of the same group of states since 2018.

Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on 23 March 2022 condemning Russia for using “banned cluster munitions” in an attack on the Cemetery of Victims of Totalitarianism in Kharkiv, in Ukraine, which contains the graves of Polish soldiers and civilians.[6]

In March 2022, Poland endorsed a statement by the EU Delegation to the UN that condemned Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine.[7] Civilian harm from the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022 has attracted media coverage in Poland and has reignited interest in Poland’s lack of accession to the convention.[8]

Poland has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria.[9] It voted in favor of a similar Human Rights Council resolution in June 2020.[10]

Poland is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use

Poland has consistently stated that the Polish Armed Forces have never used cluster munitions in combat situations.[11] In 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “As in previous years, Polish Armed Forces did not use cluster munitions in either combat situations or training.”[12]

Poland regards its air-delivered cluster munitions, which entered into service in the 1980s during the Warsaw Pact-era, as “obsolete.” In 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “current military Air Force doctrine does not anticipate any use of air-delivered cluster munitions in military operations.”[13]

Production

Poland is a producer of cluster munitions, although the last time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to the Monitor that the weapons were “still produced” was in 2010.[14] It stated in 2009 that cluster munitions manufactured by Poland are “exclusively for the needs of the Polish Armed Forces.”[15]

At least four Polish companies have produced cluster munitions:

• Zakłady Metalowe “DEZAMET” S.A. produced the ZK-300 Kisajno cluster bomb and the LBKas-250 cluster bomb, containing 120 LBok-1 bomblets.[16] It also produced a 98mm mortar projectile, and a 122mm projectile designed for the 2S1 “GOŹDZIK” howitzer.[17]
• The Kraśnik defense plant produced cluster munitions for 98mm mortars, 122mm artillery, and 152mm artillery.[18]
• Tłocznia Metali Pressta Spółka Akcynjna manufactured 122mm rockets.[19]
• Fabryka Produkcji Specjalnej Spółka z o.o. produces 122mm M-21FK “FENIKS-Z” and 122mm “HESYT” rockets, as well as GKO submunitions, a type of dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM).[20]

Some of these firms are subsidiaries of Polish Defence Holding, which is a majority government-owned industry consortium of defense sector companies, formerly known as the Bumar Group.[21]

Transfer

In April 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Poland’s stockpiled cluster munitions “are kept under strict control and are not subject to any international transfers.”[22] Previously, in 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Monitor that Poland and/or Polish companies had not exported any cluster munitions in previous years.[23]

Stockpiling

Poland possesses a stockpile of ground-launched and air-dropped cluster munitions, mostly of Polish origin, though some are from the former Soviet Union.[24]

Polish land forces are equipped with the following types of cluster munitions:

• 122mm M-21FK “FENIKS-Z” rockets, containing 42 GKO submunitions, used by BM-21/21M or RM-70/85 multi-barrel rocket launchers;
• 122mm “HESYT-1” artillery projectiles, containing 20 GKO submunitions, used by 2S1 “GOŹDZIK” self-propelled howitzers; and
• 98mm “RAD-2” mortar projectiles, containing 12 GKO submunitions, used by M-98 mortars.

The Polish Air Force possesses the following types of cluster munitions:

• ZK-300 cluster bombs containing 315 LBOk fragmentation bomblets—both the carrier and bomblets were designed and produced in Poland; and
• BKF cartridges with antivehicle, incendiary, and fragmentation bomblets, imported from the former Soviet Union, for use in KMG-U dispensers on Su-22 aircraft.

In 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Polish Armed Forces no longer possessed RBK-250, RBK-250-275, and RBK-500 type cluster bombs, which it said were withdrawn from service during the 1990s and destroyed.[25]

In April 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the “Polish Armed Forces are equipped with modern type of cluster munitions which possess self-deactivation mechanisms, thus guaranteeing a very high level of reliability.”[26]