Global Security Newswire

A secret new U.S. Army weapon intended as a nonlethal incapacitant might violate the Chemical Weapons Convention, depending on what sort of material it releases, the London Guardian reported today (see GSN, June 11, 2007).

The XM1063 is a "nonlethal personal suppression projectile" with a range of more than 17 miles when fired from a 155 mm howitzer.  The artillery shell would release 152 smaller projectiles, each of which would disperse a chemical as it headed toward earth.

The material is intended to "suppress" individuals without causing injury and to bring vehicles to a halt within a 100-meter area.  However, the type of agent involved remains a tightly held secret.

The payload is probably not a known riot-control agent such as CS or pepper spray, as their effects wear off in a matter of minutes.  Such a weapon in military hands could also contravene the Chemical Weapons Convention's prohibition against use of riot-control agents in warfare, according to the Guardian.

That leaves antitraction material, a malodorant or a previously unknown agent as the most likely choices, the Guardian reported.

Research on an antitraction agent -- intended to make areas so slippery that people and equipment cannot move through them -- appears to be in the preliminary stages, making it an unlikely component of a weapon that has already been tested.

The U.S. Defense Department has spent years trying to develop malodorants, agents that would incapacitate through an overwhelming stink.  One expert, though, questioned whether the case could be made that such materials should not be considered chemical warfare agents.

"That argument rests on the assumption that there are no other toxic effects of these chemicals, and that one can control the dose so that one never crosses into the dose range for toxic effects," said arms control and disarmament consultant Ralf Trapp.  "It is also based [on] a concept of toxicity that is centuries out of date -- malodorants do have a physiological effect and toxicity is not limited to lethality."

The Pentagon finished testing the XM1063 in 2007 and could begin production next year, the Guardian reported.  The program manager will determine when and if manufacturing of the weapon would begin, according to the Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (David Hambling, London Guardian, July 10).