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U.S. Army to Test Mobile WMD Detector
The U.S. Army has scheduled tests in April of a mobile system designed to detect chemical, biological and radiological weapons, the Deseret Morning News reported Friday (see GSN, Feb. 9). The tests, set to take place at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, are designed to determine how well the device can detect weapons of mass destruction delivered by missiles, artillery or improvised explosive devices. The Army plans to use tens of thousands of liters of chemical and biological agents designed to simulate actual chemical and germ weapons. Dugway officials have announced that a legally required environmental assessment of the tests has been performed, and that the Army determined that they would have “no significant impact” on people or the environment. The Army will accept public comments on those conclusions until March 20, the Morning News reported. Dugway documents say the exercises will be conducted “under intense, realistic threat conditions.” A 1969 nerve gas accident at Dugway killed 6,000 sheep in nearby Skull Valley, causing the Army to ban using chemical or biological weapons in open-air tests. Instead, about 16 pounds of the biological agent Bacillus subtilis, which is not considered a danger to healthy adults, are expected to be spread by a crop duster or ground-based agricultural sprayer. Chemical arms simulants are to include methyl salicylate, triethyl phosphate, acetic acid, polymethyl methacrylate and diethyl malonate, according to the Morning News. One advocacy group has expressed concern about the experiments. “We are always concerned if you stick soldiers and sailors in tests that might adversely affect their health and welfare, now or in the future. We would have to do some further review before we consider it benign,” said Steve Erickson, director of the Citizens Education Project (Lee Davidson, Deseret Morning News, Feb. 24).
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