Charlie Foxtrot
American SNAFU
In military language, “charlie foxtrot’ is a substitute for “cluster f**k”.
The MSM and social media such as X are doing a their dance, ramping up the story about Iran’s strikes on Israel using “banned” cluster bombs.
The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions or Oslo Convention strictly prohibits these weapons due to the high failure rate and long-term danger to civilians demonstrated by mostly US use in various wars such as Iraq where the US and UK dropped about 2 million bomblets, 40 % of which did not explode and especially the “Secret War” in Laos, which was by far the worst case with 80 million unexploded bomblets and 50,000 deaths, mostly children.
While over 100 countries have signed the Convention, the United States, Russia, Ukraine, China, India, Israel, and Pakistan have not.
It should be noted that while Russia currently uses cluster munitions in Ukraine, it does so against only military targets, the bomblets feature a self-destruction mechanism. Most American bomblets are “dumb” bombs which leads to that 40% figure and the deaths of many children.
The Kiev Regime uses American cluster bombs and targets mostly civilian sites in Ukraine and Russia, and has killed several hundred children, in addition to killing many more with artillery, drone and missile attacks.
Israel used cluster bombs in Lebanon in its various wars. Israel manufacturers cluster bombs with a self-defect mechanism and a 10% failure rate but mostly uses American “dumb” bombs.
You can see from the facts that anti-personnel weapons of the kind that the US and its allies use should be banned and their use made a war crime, although of course you can only have war crimes, if you have international law, which we do not in this day and age.
This leads to the obvious question. Does Iran really uses cluster munitions as we are told?
The answer is yes. But not to any extent the kind of anti-personnel cluster munitions that Americans use.
War Heads
This is an American antipersonnel cluster bomb.
Toys for kids?
Missiles like the Khorramshahr-4 , the Keibar and others may use “spit-head” war heads where the main payload divides into a few large, separate units. each about 250 kg (approx. 550 lbs)--usually 3 large heads per missile, powerful enough to destroy buildings These so-called “sub heads” or “sub war heads” are technically “cluster munitions” but NOT cluster “bombs”.
Submunitions
Then we have war heads with multiple “submunitions”.
An Iranian missile cab carry dozens of smaller explosive re-entry vehicles inside the missile’s main warhead, if the goal is to saturate a larger area such as ab air base or military base.
Khorramshahr-4
The Khorramshahr-4 can carry up to 80 of these-- roughly 10 to 20 kg. each with the destructive power of a Qassam rocket, capable of damaging ordinary infrastructure but generally unable to penetrate reinforced concrete shelters. These would do the damage seen here.
ATACMS carry between 300 and 950 submunitions. The 227mm M26, contain 644 M77 submunitions. But each of these are smaller —basically anti-personnel bombs.
Iranian warheads are anti-infrastructure
MRV and MIRV
MRVs release multiple warheads from a single aim point. MIRV stands for “Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicle, which allows warhead targeting over a wider area. In either case, the warheads may be of different types. Spit-head (MRV) cluster munitions as carried by the such Khorramshahr-4 Qadr-S and, Zolfaghar and others are dominant. “Spit head” refers to the conical aerodynamic shape of the warhead, quite unlike the ball bomblets you saw earlier .
The idea is that several of these, although smaller, can do more damage to military infrastructure then one large warhead
Example:
Max Unit Weight ~250 kg ~20 kg
Explosive Weight (Hundreds of kg) 2.5 – 7 kg
Units per Missile ~3 20 to 80
Primary Goal: Destroying hardened structures Overwhelming air defenses (saturation).
Western analysts as of March 2026 like to classify Iranian missiles as MRVs rather than MIRVs (independently guided to different areas) mostly because they like to sneer at Iranian technological advances —but Iran claims “multiple warhead” capabilities, meaning independent targeting within an area or adjacent areas. In practice, it all depends on the target environment.
In fact, Iran’s tactical; technology is in advance of the US, which has both MRVs and MIRVs but only for nuclear weapons, and has yet to develop operational hypersonic missiles like the Iranian ones. Simply put, its missiles are a generation behind.
Take US technical analysis with a bucket or two of salt. It has consistently underestimate the Iranians.
What’s the difference in philosophy
The difference lies in two things:
Morality
Tactical environments
Morality
US military doctrine is amoral. It is bureaucratic, functionalist, the “ends justify the means’ stuff. The only “spirit” of relevance is Johnny Walker.
Iranian doctrine must follow Qur’anic principles. Modern Islamic thought classifies weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and indiscriminate missiles as haram (forbidden) because they violate the core Islamic principles of distinction and proportionality in warfare.
The Hadith (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH ) govern everything in life including war. . Before battle, the Prophet PBUH famously issued “Rules of War” to his commanders, which included:
Do not kill women or children.
Do not kill the elderly or the sick.
Do not kill monks or priests in their places of worship.
Do not destroy property, cut down trees, or kill livestock.
The US and the UK have no such moral values, as we can see from the bombing of Dresden, the fire bombing of Tokyo, the nuclear bomging of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and more recently the destruction of Fallujah where the residues of U238 weapons are still killing.
Iraq
Now—the victim is Iran.
(Let’s not even talk about Israel, which is blatantly psychopathic.)
Tactical environments
This category is important. Obviously an environment may result in collateral damage which impairs military capability and the chance of success. That is certainly the case with Iran.
Iran
Iran has prepared for this war for a long time, taking the geopolitical environment into consideration, knowing that in any war with Israel and the US it would have to take out their bases in other Muslim countries which would require precision weapons and innovating strategies to localize damage to foreign owned military assets.
Israel is in some was less of a problem because the entire, small country is militarized with military facilities everywhere .
The US
In the case of the US, its strategy is “shock and awe” –- kill everything that moves, as it did in its wars with the Indians
The tactical environment is the entire territory of its opponent although in the case of Iran, this is something of a problem since it has oil resources which the US covets, As a result, it has tried to rein in Israeli attacks on Iranian oil facilities.
What matters?
Propaganda, as I used to tell my clients is aimed at the population that generates it. US propaganda about submunitions and the like is created by Americans for Americans, specifically those supporting the war, which is less than half the population. In other words, a lot of what I am talking about doesn’t matter much to an ordinary person.
What does matter is his or her or its monthly gas bill.
Right now oil prices are ranging between $100 and $120 a barrel and gasoline prices are skyrocketing.
And Trump promised:
Trump can lie about this and that. But people remember promises not kept . As oil prices rise, Trump’s support falls - and the countdown for removal begins. Wait for November.
My Bosses….
My bosses keep an eye on me. It’s a tough job herding humans.
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Thank you! I knew there was a false comparison somewhere.
Julian, I agree 100% with everything in your excellent article. Just one small nuance regarding the Iranian submunition you described. A few photos from smartphones are indeed making their way out of Israel, showing clearly recognizable destroyed residential buildings in Tel Aviv. People live there. Insofar as these residents are in shelters, there are no civilian casualties. But the commander to whom this rocket belongs cannot be certain of that. Not to mention that it has become known that there is a lack of shelters there.
I will now try to formulate the following carefully, so as not to be misunderstood. If this war is not ended (for now/temporarily) through some negotiations/empty promises on paper, then I see the end of Israel's statehood.
Iran is acting damn cleverly. As soon as the USA is completely blinded, apart from their satellites, and their air forces are driven out of the entire region, Iran will have the opportunity to dissect Israel's power apparatus and economy step by step. However, I am particularly watching two actors: 1. Turkey and 2. Pakistan. India has disqualified itself.