Direct proof of use
The Mk 20 Rockeye II cluster bomb is directly documented in the 1990 Gulf War through U.S. munition-expenditure records for Operation Desert Storm. A U.S. Marine Corps history lists 27,987 Mk-20 Rockeye bombs expended from 17 January to 28 February 1991, divided among U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aircraft.
The same table identifies 5,345 Rockeyes expended by Air Force aircraft, 6,814 by Navy aircraft, and 15,828 by Marine Corps aircraft. GlobalSecurity independently summarizes the Desert Storm employment total and describes the weapon as a free-fall cluster munition intended for armored vehicles and other area targets.
Sources: U.S. Marines in the Persian Gulf 1990-1991, MK-20 Rockeye - GlobalSecurity.org
Timeline
The supported combat-use window is the main Desert Storm combat period from 17 January to 28 February 1991. The Marine Corps appendix presents the Rockeye total in a selected-munitions table for that date range, noting that the selected munitions were those most often employed in the Kuwait theater while the totals covered all targets.
Postwar explosive-remnants evidence adds a second kind of record. Human Rights Watch reported that Rockeye CBU-99/CBU-100 bombs each carried 247 Mk 118 submunitions, that Rockeyes were used extensively in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and that Kuwait clearance agencies later encountered large numbers of Rockeye dud submunitions.
Sources: U.S. Marines in the Persian Gulf 1990-1991, Cluster Munitions a Foreseeable Hazard in Iraq
Narrative
In Gulf War service, the supported user is the United States. Public sources do not identify every aircraft type or sortie that released Rockeyes, but the official expenditure table attributes releases to Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aviation rather than to a single service branch.
The weapon's recorded role was air-delivered cluster attack against armored, artillery, personnel, and other area targets. GlobalSecurity describes the Mk-20 as a free-fall, unguided cluster weapon with 247 dual-purpose armor-piercing bomblets; Human Rights Watch identifies the Rockeye CBU-99/CBU-100 family as carrying 247 Mk 118 submunitions.
The sources support the U.S. user, campaign-period expenditure count, service-branch split, payload family, and postwar presence of Rockeye dud submunitions in Kuwait. They do not support a single named Rockeye strike site, individual aircraft sortie, or independently verified target-damage result for a particular release.
Sources: U.S. Marines in the Persian Gulf 1990-1991, MK-20 Rockeye - GlobalSecurity.org, Cluster Munitions a Foreseeable Hazard in Iraq
