The United States chemical weapons program began in 1917 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

with the creation of the U.S. Army's Gas Service Section and ended 73 years later in 1990 with the country's practical adoption of the

Chemical Weapons Convention The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, is an arms control treaty administered by the Organisation for ...

(signed 1993; entered into force, 1997). Destruction of stockpiled chemical weapons began in 1985 and is still ongoing. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, at

Aberdeen Proving Ground Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (sometimes erroneously called Aberdeen Proving ''Grounds'') is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States. More than 7,500 civilians and 5,000 military personnel work a ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, continues to operate for purely defensive research and education purposes.

Agencies and organizations

Army agencies and schools

The U.S. chemical weapons programs have generally been run by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

: * American Expeditionary Force Gas Service Section * American Expeditionary Force Chemical Service Section * U.S. Army Gas School *

U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) is the United States's principal research and development resource for non-medical chemical and biological (CB) defense. As a critical national asset in the CB defense community, ECBC suppo ...

* U.S. Army Soldier and Biological-Chemical Command *

United States Army Chemical Corps The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The Chemical Warfare Service was established on 28 June 1918, combining activities that un ...

, originally the Chemical Warfare Service *

United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) is a military medical research institute located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, US. It is the leading science and technology laboratory of the Department of Def ...

U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency The United States Army Chemical Materials Activity (CMA) is a separate reporting activity of the United States Army Materiel Command (AMC). Its role is to enhance national security by securely storing the remaining U.S. chemical warfare materiel ...

Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives The Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (PEO ACWA) is responsible for the safe and environmentally sound destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky and the U.S. Army Pueb ...

United States Army CBRN School The United States Army CBRN School (USACBRNS), located at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, is a primary American training school specializing in military Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) defense. until 2008, it was known as th ...

Units

* Chemical mortar battalion *

1st Gas Regiment The 2nd Chemical Battalion is a United States Army chemical unit stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, United States, and is part of the 48th Chemical Brigade. The battalion can trace its lineage from the 30th Engineer Regiment (Gas and Flame) and ha ...

* 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion

Modern chemical depots

Active bases *

Blue Grass Army Depot Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) is a U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command storage facility for conventional munitions and chemical weapons. The facility is located in east central Kentucky, southeast of the cities of Lexington and Richmond, Kentucky. ...

Pueblo Chemical Depot The Pueblo Chemical Depot is a chemical weapons storage site located in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The Pueblo Chemical Depot is one of the last two sites in the United States with chemical munitions and chemical material. The Pueblo ...

Closed bases *

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) was the U.S. Army's first chemical munitions disposal facility. It was located on Johnston Island, at Johnston Atoll and completed its mission and ceased operation in 2000. Background Prior ...

(closed 2000) *

Edgewood Chemical Activity The Edgewood Chemical Activity (abbreviated ECA) was a U.S. Army site located in Edgewood, Maryland that stored chemical weapons. Its construction was started by Ordnance Corps in November 1917 and completed in less than a year. The arsenal was to ...

(closed 2006) *

Hawthorne Army Depot Hawthorne Army Depot (HWAD) is a U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command ammunition storage depot located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. It is directly south of Walker Lake. The depot covers or 226 sq. mi. and ...

(eliminated shells 1999) *

Newport Chemical Depot The Newport Chemical Depot, previously known as the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Ammunition Plant, was a bulk chemical storage and destruction facility that was operated by the United States Army. It is located near Newpor ...

(closed 2008) *

Pine Bluff Chemical Activity Pine Bluff Chemical Activity (abbreviated PBCA) is a subordinate organization of the United States Army Chemical Materials Agency located at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The U.S. Army stored approximately twelve percent of its orig ...

(closed 2014) *

Umatilla Chemical Depot The Umatilla Chemical Depot, (UMCD) based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U.S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons originally stored at the depot consisted of various live munitions and storage co ...

(closed 2014) * Anniston Chemical Activity (closed 2013) *

Deseret Chemical Depot The Deseret Chemical Depot () was a U.S. Army chemical weapon storage area located in Utah, 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Salt Lake City. It is related to the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. History The area was used to store c ...

with

Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF, also called Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility) or TOCDF, is a U.S. Army facility located at Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah that was used for dismantling chemical weapons. ...

(closed 2013)

Older chemical weapons program locations

* Camp American University *

Camp Leach Camp Leach, formerly known as the American University Experimental Station and Camp American University, was a World War I era United States Army camp built by the Corps of Engineers on American University property in Washington, D.C. It was ...

Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a U.S. Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway P ...

Rocky Mountain Arsenal The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was a United States chemical weapons manufacturing center located in the Denver Metropolitan Area in Commerce City, Colorado. The site was completed December 1942, operated by the United States Army throughout the late ...

* Navajo Ordnance Depot

Treaties, laws and policy

The U.S. is party to several treaties which limit chemical weapons: *

* Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998 * Executive Order 11850 * Executive Order 13049 * Executive Order 13128 *

Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amo ...

* Treaty relating to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare - Failed because France objected to clauses relating to submarine warfare *

Geneva Protocol The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in ...

* Public Law 99-145

Weapons

Canceled weapon projects

While these weapon systems were developed, they were not produced or stored in the US chemical weapons stockpile. * BIGEYE bomb * XM-736 8-inch binary projectile

Vehicles

* LCI(M), infantry landing craft armed with 4.2 in mortar * M1135 Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, Reconnaissance Vehicle, a variation of the

Stryker The Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III. Stryker vehicles are produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) for the United States Army in a plant in London, Ontario. I ...

vehicle * M93 Fox * MQM-58 Overseer

Declared stockpile and other weapons

* M1 chemical mine * M1 chemical bomb * M10 smoke tank * M104 155mm shell * M110A1/A2 155mm shell *

M114 bomblet The M114 bomb was a four-pound U.S. anti-personnel bomb and biological cluster bomb sub-munition. The M114 was used in the M33 cluster bomb. History The M114 was a sub-munition for the M33 cluster bomb, as such, it was the first standardized U.S ...

* M121/A1 155mm shell * M122 155mm shell * M125 bomblet, (developed as E54R6) chemical bomblet used with M34A1 cluster bomb * M134 bomblet, (developed as E130R1), chemical bomblet for use with Honest John rockets * M138 bomblet, sub-munition for the M43 cluster bomb * M139 cluster bomblets for the

MGR-1 Honest John The MGR-1 Honest John rocket was the first nuclear-capable surface-to-surface rocket in the United States arsenal.The first nuclear-authorized ''guided'' missile was the MGM-5 Corporal. Originally designated Artillery Rocket XM31, the first uni ...

rocket and other missile systems *M2 mortar shell (M2A1) for the M2 4.2 Inch Mortar *

M23 chemical mine The M23 is a United States steel cased chemical landmine. The mine was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and approximately 100,000 units were produced. The U.S. completed its destruction of its stock at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in 2 ...

* M34A1 cluster bomb (developed as E101R3), first U.S. air-delivered nerve agent weapon * M360 105mm shell * M426 8-inch shell * M43 cluster bomb *

M44 generator cluster The M44 generator cluster was an American chemical cluster bomb designed to deliver the incapacitating agent BZ. It was first mass-produced in 1962 and all stocks of the weapons were destroyed by 1989. History The United States Army Chemical Corp ...

M47 bomb The M47 bomb was a chemical bomb designed during World War II for use by the U.S. Army Air Forces.M55 rocket * M6 canister, BZ sub-munition for the M44 generator cluster * M60 105mm shell * M687 155mm shell * MC-1 bomb * Mk 94 bomb * Mk 95 bomb *

Weteye bomb The Weteye bomb was a U.S. chemical weapon designed for the U.S. Navy and meant to deliver the nerve agent sarin. The Weteye held of liquid sarin and was officially known as the Mk 116 (Mark 116). Stockpiles of Weteyes were transferred to Utah ...

, also known as the Mk-116 bomb

Stockpiled chemical agents

Agents stockpiled at the time of Chemical Weapons Convention: * isopropyl aminoethylmethyl phosphonite, or QL, part of a binary weapon (VX) *

Methylphosphonyl difluoride Methylphosphonyl difluoride (DF), also known as EA-1251 or difluoro, is a chemical weapon precursor. Its chemical formula is CH3POF2. It is a Schedule 1 substance under the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is used for production of sarin and so ...

(known to the military as DF) and a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and isopropyl amine (known as OPA), a binary chemical weapon (sarin) * Mustard gas * Sarin (GB) * VX *

Rainbow Herbicides The Rainbow Herbicides are a group of tactical-use chemicals used by the United States military in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Success with Project AGILE field tests with herbicides in South Vietnam in 1961 and inspiration by the Briti ...

Older chemical agents

* Phosgene *

Chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

* BZ

Other equipment

* Chemical Agent Identification Set (CAIS) * People sniffer

Exercises, incidents, and accidents

Operations and exercises

* Operation Blue Skies *

Operation CHASE Operation CHASE (an acronym for "Cut Holes And Sink 'Em") was a United States Department of Defense program for the disposal of unwanted munitions at sea from May 1964 until the early 1970s.Kurak, Steve "Operation Chase" ''United States Naval Instit ...

, an operation that dumped conventional and chemical munitions at sea * Operation Davy Jones' Locker, a post-World War II operation aimed at dumping German chemical weapons at seas * Operation Geranium, a 1948 operation that dumped lewisite into the Atlantic Ocean. *

Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War ...

, a program beginning in 1945 to bring German scientists to the U.S. *

Operation Ranch Hand Operation Ranch Hand was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (Agent Orange) during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the over ...

, defoliant operations during the Vietnam War *

Operation Red Hat Operation Red Hat was a United States Department of Defense movement of chemical warfare munitions from Okinawa, Japan to Johnston Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, which occurred in 1971. Background U.S. chemical weapons were brought into Ok ...

, an early 1970 program to repatriate weapons from Okinawa * Operation Rock Ready, 1980's testing and rebuilding of the M17 series protective mask *

Operation Snoopy Operation Snoopy was an operation launched by Rhodesia in response to Air Rhodesia Flight 825 being shot down by a communist backed insurgent group, the ZIPRA. The operation took place in Mozambique, where many of the ZANLA's camps were loca ...

, Vietnam War people sniffer operations. *

Operation Steel Box Operation Steel Box, also known as Operation Golden Python (German name for the transport in Germany: Aktion Lindwurm), was a 1990 joint U.S.-West German operation which moved over 100,000 U.S. chemical weapons from Germany to Johnston Atoll. Ba ...

, an operation which moved chemical weapons out of Germany in 1990.

Accidents

*Bombing of the SS ''John Harvey'' during the Air Raid on Bari * Dugway sheep incident

Chemical testing

Edgewood Arsenal human experiments From 1948 to 1975, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified human subject research at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to tes ...

* Operation LAC, (Large Area Coverage), 1958 test that dropped microscopic particles over much of the United States * Operation Top Hat, a 1953 Chemical Corps exercise testing decontamination methods on human subjects *

Project SHAD Project SHAD, an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense, was part of a larger effort called Project 112, which was conducted during the 1960s. Project SHAD encompassed tests designed to identify U.S. warships' vulnerabilities to attacks with che ...

Chemical defense program

References

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United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Chemical warfare