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Greece
The Hellenic Republic (Greece) has not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It attended the international meetings of the Oslo Process in Lima in May 2007 and Vienna in December 2007 and was an observer during the treaty negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the signing conference in Oslo in December 2008. Greece also attended the regional conference in Sofia, Bulgaria in September 2008. It did not deliver statements at any of these meetings.
Greece has not made a public declaration of its cluster munition policy. During a September 2008 meeting with representatives of the CMC in New York, an official said that it was highly unlikely that Greece would sign the convention in Oslo because of national security considerations, including the need to use cluster munitions for national defense; concerns regarding the stockpile destruction deadline and the costs of destruction; and the fact that others in the region were not ready to sign. He also said that Greece preferred to see how the deliberations in the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) played out and noted that the new United States policy based on the elimination of cluster munitions in 2018 would influence Greece’s thinking greatly.[1]
Greece is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, but has yet to ratify Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. It has not been a vocal participant in the discussions on cluster munitions in the CCW in recent years.
Use, Production, Stockpiling, and Transfer
Greece is not known to have used cluster munitions. Greece is a producer and importer of cluster munitions. Hellenic Defence Systems S.A. (EBO-PYRKAL), also known as EAS, produces two versions of the GRM-49 155mm artillery projectile with 49 dual purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) submunitions and the 107mm high explosive/improved conventional munition (HE/ICM) GRM20 mortar projectile containing 20 DPICM.[2]
Greece has imported 203mm DPICM artillery projectiles, M26 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) rockets, and Rockeye bombs from the US.[3] According to US export records, Greece also imported 4,008 CBU-55B cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[4] Greece is the sole reported customer for the Autonomous Free Flight Dispenser System (AFDS), which disperses a variety of explosive submunitions, developed by General Dynamics (US) and LFK (Germany).[5] Jane’s Information Group lists Greece as also possessing BLG-66 Belouga and CBU-71 cluster bombs.[6] In addition, Greece has imported DM-702 SMArt-155 sensor-fuzed munitions from Germany. These contain two submunitions but are not considered cluster munitions under the terms of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7]
A UN explosive ordnance disposal team in the area of Melhadega in Eritrea identified and destroyed a dud M20G DPICM grenade of Greek origin in October 2004.[8]
[1] CMC meeting with Eleftherios Kouvaritakis, First Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN, New York, 10 September 2008.
[2] “Our Products,” Hellenic Defence Systems S.A. corporate website, www.eas.gr. The Greek Powder and Cartridge Company (Pyrkal) was merged into EAS in 2004.
[3] The US sent 50,000 M509 203mm projectiles to Greece in 1996 under the Excess Defense Article program. Each M509A1 contains 180 M42/M46 DPICM. US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “Excess Defense Articles,” www.dsca.osd. For the M26, see US Defense Security Cooperation Agency news release, “Greece – M26A2 MLRS Extended Range Rocket Pods,” Transmittal No. 06–47, 29 September 2006. For Rockeye bombs, see Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007-2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008, (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[4] US Defense Security Assistance Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970-FY1995,” November 15, 1995, obtained by Human Rights Watch in a Freedom of Information Act request, November 28, 1995.
[5] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), pp. 365–367.
[6] Ibid, p. 839. The Belouga was produced by France, and the CBU-71 was produced by the US.
[7] Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), p. 668. Greece may also have imported DPICM artillery projectiles from Germany.
[8] UNMEE Mine Action Coordination Center, Weekly Update, Asmara, 4 October 2004, p. 4.