In recent years, there has been considerable uncertainty over the condition of unexploded ordnance remaining from the Second Indochina War. The perception and treatment of risk vary substantially, from clearance agencies that enforce a ‘no-move’ policy, to farmers who routinely remove items from their fields by hand. Accidents, although thankfully rare now, are often unexplained and lead to further speculation.

In October 2025, the National Regulatory Authority of Lao PDR (NRA) and UNDP contracted Fenix Insight Ltd, a UK-based specialist weapons intelligence company, to examine samples of unexploded submunitions. Fenix deployed a 2-person team to work on clearance sites run by The HALO Trust in Savannakhet province. This work involved the recovery, disassembly and analysis of unexploded submunitions in order to assess their condition and enable an evidence-based approach to future risk management and clearance efforts.

The work focused on US-made submunitions of the Bomb Live Unit (BLU) series, including the BLU-3, -24, -26 and -36/-59. These employ a range of mechanical delay and impact fuzes that are fully incorporated within the munition. In most types, the absence of any external indication of their arming status or condition makes it impossible to assess their condition. The inability to quantify their risk has led to a blanket policy of in-place destruction among clearance organisations.

This type of practical research can yield uncertain, ambiguous and even contradictory findings, while the small numbers of items examined often raise issues of statistical significance. However, in this study some consistent findings emerged, supported by results from previous research on ammunition ageing.