The United States chemical weapons program began in 1917 during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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) 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 at APG. There are 11 major commands among the tenant units, ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, 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: * American Expeditionary Force Gas Service Section * American Expeditionary Force Chemical Service Section * U.S. Army Gas School * U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center * U.S. Army Soldier and Biological-Chemical Command * United States Army Chemical Corps, originally the Chemical Warfare Service * United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense * U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency *

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

* United States Army CBRN School

Units

* Chemical mortar battalion * 1st Gas Regiment * 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion

Modern chemical depots

Active bases * Blue Grass Army Depot * Pueblo Chemical Depot Closed bases * Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (closed 2000) * Edgewood Chemical Activity at

(closed 2006) * Hawthorne Army Depot (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 (closed 2014) * Umatilla Chemical Depot (closed 2014) * Anniston Chemical Activity (closed 2013) * Deseret Chemical Depot with Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (closed 2013)

Older chemical weapons program locations

* Camp American University * Camp Leach *

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

* Rocky Mountain Arsenal * 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 treaty, treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions w ...

* Treaty relating to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare - Failed because France objected to clauses relating to submarine warfare * Geneva Protocol * 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, and chemical reconnaissance vehicle, a variation of the

Stryker The Stryker is a family of Eight-wheel drive, 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 L ...

vehicle * M93 Fox * MQM-58 Overseer

Declared stockpile and other weapons

* M1 chemical mine * M1 chemical bomb * M10 smoke tank * M104 155 mm shell * M110A1/A2 155 mm shell * M114 bomblet * M121/A1 155 mm shell * M122 155 mm 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 weapon, 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 ...

rocket and other missile systems *M2 mortar shell (M2A1) for the M2 4.2 Inch Mortar * M23 chemical mine * M34A1 cluster bomb (developed as E101R3), first U.S. air-delivered nerve agent weapon * M360 105 mm shell * M426 8-inch shell * M43 cluster bomb * M44 generator cluster *

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 105 mm shell * M687 155 mm shell * MC-1 bomb * Mk 94 bomb * Mk 95 bomb * Weteye bomb, 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 (known to the military as DF) and a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and isopropyl amine (known as OPA), a

binary chemical weapon __NOTOC__ Binary chemical weapons or munitions are chemical weapons which contain the toxic agent in its active state as chemical precursors that are significantly less toxic than the agent. This improves the safety of storing, transporting, and ...

(sarin) *

Mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur compound, organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other Chemical species, species. In the wi ...

* Sarin (GB) * VX *

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

Older chemical agents

Phosgene Phosgene is an organic chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic, colorless gas; in low concentrations, its musty odor resembles that of freshly cut hay or grass. It can be thought of chemically as the double acyl chloride analog of ...

Chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), 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 ...

* BZ

Other equipment

* Chemical Agent Identification Set (CAIS) * People sniffer

Exercises, incidents, and accidents

Operations and exercises

* Operation Blue Skies * Operation CHASE, 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 Lewisite (L) (A-243) is an organoarsenic compound. It was once manufactured in the United States, Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union for use as a Chemical warfare, chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. Although ...

into the Atlantic Ocean. *

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

, a program beginning in 1945 to bring German scientists to the U.S. * Operation Ranch Hand, defoliant operations during the Vietnam War * Operation Red Hat, 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, Vietnam War people sniffer operations. * Operation Steel Box, 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 * 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

Chemical defense program

* United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense

References

{{US military navbox

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Chemical warfare