A cluster munition, (in this example carrying 202 'BLU 97 A/B' submunitions), is dropped from a plane. The bomb can fly about 9 miles by itself before the submunitions are released.

A short time before the submunitions are released, the container begins to spin, and opens at an altitude of between 330 ft and 3,300 ft. The height, velocity and rotation speed determine how big an area will be covered by the submunitions when they hit the ground.

Each submunition is about the size of a soda can. They each deploy a little parachute that stabilizes them and makes sure that they descend with their nose down. Each submunition is made of a copper cone that can pierce through 7 inches of armour, and contains over 300 pieces of preformed steel fragmentation pieces designed to destroy human targets, as well as incendiary material (zirconium) to cause burning.

Depending on the wind conditions and the altitude at which the submunitions were released, each bomb container can cover an area of up to 861,120 square feet with submunitions.

When the submunitions explode, they cause injury and damage across a wide area. The blast of one submunition can cause deadly shrapnel injuries in a 65-foot radius and injure anyone within a 328-foot radius.

Moreover, many of the submunitions fail to detonate upon impact, leaving behind large numbers of hazardous explosive “duds” that are akin to landmines, injuring and killing civilians and contaminating the land long after conflicts. The percentage of unexploded submunitions from each canister varies but can be as high as 30 percent.

This map shows the potential area that would be covered if a single cluster bomb was dropped on the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The red area reflects a fatal footprint of nearly 1 kilometer for a single cluster bomb.