chemical warfare
n.
Warfare and associated military operations involving the employment of lethal and incapacitating munitions and agents, typically poisons, contaminants, and irritants.
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Warfare and associated military operations involving the employment of lethal and incapacitating munitions and agents, typically poisons, contaminants, and irritants.
Wilfred Owen, veteran and poet of World War I, understood chemical warfare. Dulce et decorum est, Owen's view of gassing by chlorine, sums it up:
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys — An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime…
— Alastair Hay
See also poisons; war and the body.
All aspects of military operations involving the employment of lethal and incapacitating munitions/agents and the warning and protective measures associated with such offensive operations.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
For more information on chemical warfare, visit Britannica.com.
Poison gas was first used during World War I, when the Germans released (Apr., 1915) chlorine gas against the Allies. The Germans also introduced mustard gas later in the war. Afterward, the major powers continued to stockpile gases for possible future use and several actually used it: the British in Afghanistan, the French and Spanish in Africa, the Italians in Ethiopia, and the Japanese in China. Lethal gases were not employed in combat during World War II, but the Germans did use gases for mass murder during the Holocaust. The Germans also invented and stockpiled the first nerve gas. It is odorless and colorless and attacks the body muscles, including the involuntary muscles. It is the most lethal and insidious weapon of chemical warfare. Since World War II, chemical weapons are known to have been used by Egypt in Yemen (during the 1962–67 civil war) and by Iraq against Iran during the Iran-Traq War and against Kurdish rebels.
Besides lethal gases, which attack the skin, blood, nervous, or respiratory system and require hospitalization of the victim, there are also nonlethal incapacitating agents, which, like tear gas, cause temporary physical disability. Such agents have often been employed in riot control, espionage, and warfare. Various forms of herbicides and defoliants are also used to destroy crops or vegetation, as Agent Orange was used by the United States during the Vietnam War.
The potential effectiveness of chemical warfare is increasing with improved methods of dissemination, such as artillery shells, grenades, missiles, and aircraft and submarine spray guns. Some protection against chemical weapons is possible using suits, sealed vehicles, and shelters. Such countermeasures usually protect against nuclear fallout and biological warfare as well. Lethal chemical weapons are held by many nations and they continue to be used. The danger of the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons remains despite arms control because they are relatively easy to manufacture and deploy.
Efforts to control chemical and biological weapons began in the late 19th cent. The Geneva Protocol of 1925, which went into force in 1928, condemned the use of chemical weapons but did not ban the development and stockpiling of chemical weapons. The United States did not ratify the protocol until 1974. In 1990, with the end of the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to cut their arsenals by 80% in an effort to create a climate of change that would discourage smaller nations from stockpiling and using such lethal weapons. In 1993 a international treaty banning the production, stockpiling (both by 2007), and use of chemical weapons and calling for the establishment of an independent organization to verify compliance was adopted. The agreement, which became effective in 1997, has been signed and ratified by 160 nations. The treaty is enforced by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in The Hague. The alleged Iraqi retention, after the Persian Gulf War cease-fire, of chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction was the main pretext for the 2003 U.S.-British invasion of Iraq.
Bibliography
See the ongoing Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Problems of Chemical and Biological Warfare (1971–); R. Harris and J. Paxman, A Higher Form of Killing (1982); E. M. Spiers, Chemical Warfare (1986); J. B. Tucker, War of Nerves (2006).
Chemical warfare involves the aggressive use of bulk chemicals that cause death or grave injury. These chemicals are different from the lethal chemical compounds that are part of infectious bacteria or viruses. The latter constitute biological warfare.
History of Chemical Warfare
The use of chemicals in warfare began centuries ago, when early combatants learned that smoke from burning sulfur caused discomfort when it drifted into enemy fortifications. The dawn of modern chemical warfare occurred during World War I. On April 15, 1915, German forces released about 160 tons of chlorine gas into the wind near the Belgian village of Ypres. The clouds of the gas drifted into Allied forces, killing some 5,000 soldiers. Two days later, another chlorine attack at the same village killed 5,000 more soldiers.
During the remainder of World War I, German and British forces used chlorine gas, and other chemicals (i.e., mustard gas and phosphene) with increasing tendency. Estimates are that approximately 113,000 tons of chemical weapons were used from 1915 to 1918, killing some 92,000 people and injuring over one million people.
The aerial release of chemicals brought unpredictable results at the mercy of prevailing winds. Shifting winds could send the deadly cloud back to the attacking troops. Later during World War I, more sophisticated use of chemical weapons began. For example, the French used shells filled with an irritant to the eyes, skin, and lining of the nose and lungs, and the Germans fired lead balls coated with similar irritant.
The horrors of chemical warfare during World War I prompted the drafting of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which banned chemical and biological weapons of warfare. The protocol was initially signed by 38 nations (now over 130 nations). As history has shown, the protocol has not stopped the use of such weapons by rouge states or fringe elements in order to commit terrorism.
Aerial releases of lethal chemicals did not occur in World War II. However, the Germans developed a new class of chemical weapon called nerve agents. During the 1930s and 1940s, agents such as Tabun, Sarin, and Soman were created.
Chemical warfare research continued during the Cold War tensions during the 1950s. During this time, military chemists in the United Kingdom and then in the United States adapted insecticides to produce the most lethal chemical agent then known. The agent was code named VX. The potency of VX was accidentally demonstrated in 1968, when a testing accident at the VX manufacturing plant in Dugway, Utah killed over 6,000 sheep.
During the Vietnam War of the 1970s, the U.S. use of defoliants—chemicals that killed vegetation, permitting a clearer detection of the enemy—was extensive. One of these compounds, Agent Orange, has become infamous as the alleged cause of a variety of physical ailments in veterans of the conflict.
In the last few decades, chemicals have become the tools of terrorists. A particularly well-known example is the release of Sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo in March of 1995. The gas killed 12 people and injured over 5,500 people in 16 stations.
Chemical Warfare Agents
There are several classes of chemical warfare agents, based on their effects
Choking and irritant agents. There are a number of compounds that cause choking or irritation of lung tissue. Examples include chlorine, phosgene (carbonyl chloride), diphosgene, chloropicrin, ethyldichloroarsine, and perflurorisobutylene.
Chlorine gas is suffocating and quickly burns tissues in the nose, mouth, and lungs. The burned tissue can die and slough off, causing lasting damage. Chlorine gas dissipates in the air very quickly. If exposure is not too long, than damage can be minor. In contrast, the compound called disphosgene is a liquid at room temperature, and so persists much longer.
Blister agents. As their name implies, blister agents cause the formation of large and painful blisters on the skin. Eye and lung tissue can also be damaged. A well-known example of a blistering agent dating from World War I is mustard gas. The damage to cells of the skin cause blistering up to 24 hours after exposure to mustard gas. These blisters take a long time to heal and can send the body into a lethal shock reaction.
Other examples of blistering agents include nitrogen mustard, lewisite, and phenyldichloroarsine. The latter compound is a liquid, which can be sprayed onto an enemy or released from a balloon, helicopter, or airplane.
Blood agents. These compounds interfere with the body's ability to transport oxygen in the bloodstream. This is done by either blocking the use of oxygen by cells in the body or by blocking the ability of the blood to take up the oxygen. Examples include hydrogen cyanide (also called prussic acid), cyanogen chloride, arsine, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide.
Hydrogen cyanide is initially a liquid at room temperature, but it quickly evaporates. This compound is noteworthy in recent world history, as it was used by Iraq in 1988 on an attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja during the Iran-Iraq war. Because of its past use by Iraq, hydrogen cyanide was one of the major concerns of United Nations inspectors who inspected various facilities in Iraq during the winter of 2003.
Compounds such as arsine and carbon monoxide destroy the ability of the hemoglobin component of the blood to bind oxygen. Arsine does this by destroying the red blood cells. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin, blocking the binding of oxygen.
Nerve agents. Compounds that are classified as nerve agents interfere with the body's transmission of nerve impulses. This is done by disrupting the activity of a chemical called acetyl cholinesterase, which functions to bridge the gap between adjacent nerve cells, permitting an electrical nerve signal to pass from one nerve cell to the next.
Nerve agents were first developed in 1936, following the development of organophosphate types of pesticides. The first nerve agent that was made is called Tabrun. It is a member of what is known as the G series of nerve agents. Other G series members are Sarin and Soman. Sarin is particularly lethal; a small amount absorbed through the skin can kill a man within two minutes. When inhaled, death occurs within 15 minutes. Sarin is infamous as the gas released into the Tokyo subway system by the fringe group Aum Shinrikyo in 1995.
Another series of nerve agents are called the V series. Members of this series—which are commonly abbreviated according to their chemical composition—are more potent than the agents of the G series. As well, they persist longer in the environment. They can, for example, be applied to surfaces like roads as a slime.
Examples of V series agents include VX, VE, VG, and VM. VX is extremely potent; a drop of the liquid absorbed through the skin is lethal within a few hours without treatment.
Nerve agents can be contained in missiles or in canisters for lengthy time periods. Examination of caves in Afghanistan that were used as strongholds by the terrorist group al Qaeda has revealed evidence of stores of Sarin and VX.
Herbicides. Herbicides are chemicals that kill vegetation. Such chemicals are often used in everyday life to keep lawns free of weeds (although more environmentallyfriendly alternatives are becoming popular). When used in war, herbicides are weapons of mass destruction to foliage. Destruction of plants and the resulting loss of leaf cover remove much of the concealment for an enemy in a forested area. These philosophies led to the massive use of Agent Orange by the United States in the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Since that war, the damaging effects of herbicides like Agent Orange and paraquat on the human nervous and immune systems has become evident.
Incendiaries. Incendiaries are chemicals that cause fires. In warfare, they are also to remove vegetation. An infamous incendiary is napalm. Napalm is a mixture of naphthenic acid, coconut fatty acids, and palm oil. In addition to its highly flammable property, napalm absorbs into exposed skin, where it can cause severe burns if ignited. Napalm was used as an offensive weapon by the United States during the Vietnam War.
Modern Day Chemical Warfare
In 2003, the use of chemical weapons remains a threat from rogue states and terrorists. Current world attention is focused on the former chemical warfare capabilities of Iraq. It is known that Iraq engaged in chemical warfare research and weaponization in the 1980s and 1990s, and as of early 2003, before the U.S. war in Iraq, had not fully complied with United Nations resolutions requiring disclosure and destruction of their chemical weapons program.
Further Reading
Books
Ellison, D. Hank. Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1999.
Harris, Robert, and Jeremy Paxman. A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare. New York: Random House, 2002.
Periodicals
Macintrye, A. G., C. G. W. Eitzen, Jr., R. Gum, et al. "Weapons of Mass Destruction Events with Contaminated Casualties: Effective Planning for Health Care Facilities." Journal of the American Medical Association no. 283 (2000): 252–253.
Munro, N.B., S.S. Talmage, G.D. Griffin, et al. "The Sources, Fate, and Toxicity of Chemical Warfare Agent Degradation Products." Environmental Health Perspectives no. 107 (1999): 933–974.
Nakajima, T., S. Ohta, Y. Fukushima, et al. "Sequelae of Sarin Toxicity at One and Three Years after Exposure in Matsumoto, Japan." Journal of Epidemiology no. 9 (1999): 337–343.
Electronic
How Stuff Works. "How Biological and Chemical Warfare Works." 2002. <http://www.howstuffworks.com/Biochem-war.htm>(10 January 2003).
(DOD) All aspects of military operations involving the employment of lethal and incapacitating munitions/agents and the warning and protective measures associated with such offensive operations. Since riot control agents and herbicides are not considered to be chemical warfare agents, those two items will be referred to separately or under the broader term "chemical," which will be used to include all types of chemical munitions/agents collectively. Also called CW. See also chemical agent; chemical defense; chemical dose; chemical environment; chemical weapon; riot control agent.
| This article forms part of the series Chemical warfare
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| (A subset of Weapons of mass destruction) |
| Lethal agents |
|---|
| Blood agents |
| Cyanogen chloride (CK) |
| Hydrogen cyanide (AC) |
| Blister agents |
| Lewisite (L) |
| Sulfur mustard gas (HD, H, HT, HL, HQ) |
| Nitrogen mustard gas (HN1, HN2, HN3) |
| Nerve agents |
| G-Agents |
| Tabun (GA), Sarin (GB) Soman (GD), Cyclosarin (GF) |
| GV |
| V-Agents |
| VE, VG, VM, VX |
| Novichok agents |
| Pulmonary agents |
| Chlorine |
| Chloropicrin (PS) |
| Phosgene (CG) |
| Diphosgene (DP) |
| "Non-lethal" agents |
| Incapacitating agents |
| Agent 15 (BZ) |
| Kolokol-1 |
| Riot control agents |
| Pepper spray (OC) |
| CS gas |
| CN gas (mace) |
| CR gas |
Chemical warfare is warfare (and associated military operations) using the toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure or incapacitate an enemy.
Chemical warfare is different from the use of conventional weapons or nuclear weapons because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to any explosive force. The offensive use of living organisms (such as anthrax) is considered to be biological warfare rather than chemical warfare; the use of nonliving toxic products produced by living organisms (e.g., toxins such as botulinum toxin, ricin, or saxitoxin) is considered chemical warfare under the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Under this Convention, any toxic chemical, regardless of its origin, is considered as a chemical weapon unless it is used for purposes that are not prohibited (an important legal definition, known as the General Purpose Criterion).
About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled as Chemical Weapons (CW) agents during the 20th century. Chemical weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction by the United Nations, and their production and stockpiling was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. Under the Convention, chemicals that are toxic enough to be used as chemical weapons, or may be used to manufacture such chemicals, are divided into three groups according to their purpose and treatment:
| Agents | Dissemination | Protection | Detection | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | Chlorine Chloropicrin Phosgene Mustard gas |
Wind dispersal | Smell | |
| 1910s | Lewisite | Chemical shells | Gas mask Rosin oil clothing |
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| 1920s | Projectiles w/ central bursters | CC-2 clothing | ||
| 1930s | G-series nerve agents | Aircraft bombs | Blister agent detectors Color change paper |
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| 1940s | Missile warheads Spray tanks |
Protective ointment (mustard) Collective protection Gas mask w/ Whetlerite |
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| 1950s | ||||
| 1960s | V-series nerve agents | Aerodynamic | Gas mask w/ water supply | Nerve gas alarm |
| 1970s | ||||
| 1980s | Binary munitions | Improved gas masks (protection, fit, comfort) |
Laser detection | |
| 1990s | Novichok nerve agents |
Although crude chemical warfare has been employed in many parts of the world for thousands of years, "modern" chemical warfare began during World War I (see main article - Poison gas in World War I). Initially, only well-known commercially available chemicals and their variants were used. These included chlorine and phosgene gas. The methods of dispersing these agents during battle were relatively unrefined and inefficient.
Germany, the first side to employ chemical warfare on the battlefield,[1] simply opened canisters of chlorine upwind of the opposing side and let the prevailing winds do the dissemination. Soon after, the French modified artillery munitions to contain phosgene – a much more effective method that became the principal means of delivery.
Since the development of modern chemical warfare in World War I, nations have pursued research and development on chemical weapons that falls into four major categories: new and more deadly agents; more efficient methods of delivering agents to the target (dissemination); more reliable means of defense against chemical weapons; and more sensitive and accurate means of detecting chemical agents.
A chemical used in warfare is called a chemical weapon agent (CWA). About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled as chemical weapon agents during the 20th century and the 21st century. These agents may be in liquid, gas or solid form. Liquid agents are generally designed to evaporate quickly; such liquids are said to be volatile or have a high vapor pressure. Many chemical agents are made volatile so they can be dispersed over a large region quickly.
The earliest target of chemical weapon agent research was not toxicity, but development of agents that can affect a target through the skin and clothing, rendering protective gas masks useless. In July 1917, the Germans first employed mustard gas, the first agent that circumvented gas masks. Mustard gas easily penetrates leather and fabric to inflict painful burns on the skin.
Chemical weapon agents are divided into lethal and incapacitating categories. A substance is classified as incapacitating if less than 1/100 of the lethal dose causes incapacitation, e.g., through nausea or visual problems. The distinction between lethal and incapacitating substances is not fixed, but relies on a statistical average called the LD50.
All chemical weapon agents are classified according to their persistency, a measure of the length of time that a chemical agent remains effective after dissemination. Chemical agents are classified as persistent or nonpersistent.
Agents classified as nonpersistent lose effectiveness after only a few minutes or hours. Purely gaseous agents such as chlorine are nonpersistent, as are highly volatile agents such as sarin and most other nerve agents. Tactically, nonpersistent agents are very useful against targets that are to be taken over and controlled very quickly. Generally speaking, nonpersistent agents present only an inhalation hazard.
By contrast, persistent agents tend to remain in the environment for as long as a week, complicating decontamination. Defense against persistent agents requires shielding for extended periods of time. Non-volatile liquid agents, such as blister agents and the oily VX nerve agent, do not easily evaporate into a gas, and therefore present primarily a contact hazard.
Chemical weapon agents are organized into several categories according to the manner in which they affect the human body. The names and number of categories varies slightly from source to source, but in general, types of chemical weapon agents are as follows:
| Class of agent | Agent Names | Mode of Action | Signs and Symptoms | Rate of action | Persistency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nerve |
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Inactivates enzyme acetylcholinesterase, preventing the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the victim's |
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VX is persistent and a contact hazard; other agents are non-persistent and present mostly inhalation hazards. | |
| Asphyxiant/Blood |
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Immediate onset | Non-persistent and an inhalation hazard. | |
| Vesicant/Blister |
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Agents are |
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Persistent and a contact hazard. |
| Choking/Pulmonary |
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Similar mechanism to blister agents in that the compounds are |
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Immediate to 3 hours | Non-persistent and an inhalation hazard. |
| Lachrymatory agent | Causes severe stinging of the eyes and temporary blindness. | Powerful eye irritation | Immediate | Non-persistent and an inhalation hazard. | |
| Incapacitating |
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Causes atropine-like inhibition of acetylcholine in subject. Causes peripheral nervous system effects that are the opposite of those seen in nerve agent poisoning. |
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Extremely persistent in soil and water and on most surfaces; contact hazard. |
| Cytotoxic proteins |
Non-living biological proteins, such as: |
Inhibit protein synthesis |
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4-24 hours; see symptoms. Exposure by inhalation or injection causes more pronounced signs and symptoms than exposure by ingestion | Slight; agents degrade quickly in environment |
There are other chemicals used militarily that are not technically considered to be "chemical weapon agents," such as:
Most chemical weapons are assigned a one- to three-letter "NATO weapon designation" in addition to, or in place of, a common name. Binary munitions, in which precursors for chemical weapon agents are automatically mixed in shell to produce the agent just prior to its use, are indicated by a "-2" following the agent's designation (for example, GB-2 and VX-2).
Some examples are given below:
| Blood agents: | Vesicants: |
|---|---|
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| Pulmonary agents: | Incapacitating agents: |
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| Lachrymatory agents: | Nerve agents: |
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The most important factor in the effectiveness of chemical weapons is the efficiency of its delivery, or dissemination, to a target. The most common techniques include munitions (such as bombs, projectiles, warheads) that allow dissemination at a distance and spray tanks which disseminate from low-flying aircraft. Developments in the techniques of filling and storage of munitions have also been important.
Although there have been many advances in chemical weapon delivery since World War I, it is still difficult to achieve effective dispersion. The dissemination is highly dependent on atmospheric conditions because many chemical agents act in gaseous form. Thus, weather observations and forecasting are essential to optimize weapon delivery and reduce the risk of injuring friendly forces.
Dispersion is the simplest technique of delivering an agent to its target. It consists of placing the chemical agent upon or adjacent to a target immediately before dissemination, so that the material is most efficiently used.
World War I saw the earliest implementation of this technique, when German forces at Ypres simply opened cylinders of chlorine and allowed the wind to carry the gas across enemy lines. While simple, this technique had numerous disadvantages. Moving large numbers of heavy gas cylinders to the front-line positions from where the gas would be released was a lengthy and difficult logistical task. Stockpiles of cylinders had to be stored at the front line, posing a great risk if hit by artillery shells. Gas delivery depended greatly on wind speed and direction. If the wind was fickle, as at Loos, the gas could blow back, causing friendly casualties. Gas clouds gave plenty of warning, allowing the enemy time to protect themselves, though many soldiers found the sight of a creeping gas cloud unnerving. Also gas clouds had limited penetration, capable only of affecting the front-line trenches before dissipating. Although it produced limited results in World War I, this technique shows how simple chemical weapon dissemination can be.
Shortly after this "open canister" dissemination, French forces developed a technique for delivery of phosgene in a non-explosive artillery shell. This technique overcame many of the risks of dealing with gas in cylinders. First, gas shells were independent of the wind and increased the effective range of gas, making any target within reach of guns vulnerable. Second, gas shells could be delivered without warning, especially the clear, nearly odorless phosgene — there are numerous accounts of gas shells, landing with a "plop" rather than exploding, being initially dismissed as dud high explosive or shrapnel shells, giving the gas time to work before the soldiers were alerted and took precautions.
The major drawback of artillery delivery was the difficulty of achieving a killing concentration. Each shell had a small gas payload and an area would have to be subjected to saturation bombardment to produce a cloud to match cylinder delivery. A British solution to the problem was the Livens Projector. This was effectively a large-bore mortar, dug into the ground that used the gas cylinders themselves as projectiles - firing a 14 kg cylinder up to 1500 m. This combined the gas volume of cylinders with the range of artillery.
Over the years, there were some refinements in this technique. In the 1950s and early 1960s, chemical artillery rockets contained a multitude of submunitions, so that a large number of small clouds of the chemical agent would form directly on the target.
Thermal dissemination is the use of explosives or pyrotechnics to deliver chemical agents. This technique, developed in the 1920s, was a major improvement over earlier dispersal techniques, in that it allowed significant quantities of an agent to be disseminated over a considerable distance. Thermal dissemination remains the principal method of disseminating chemical agents today.
Most thermal dissemination devices consist of a bomb or projectile shell that contains a chemical agent and a central "burster" charge; when the burster detonates, the agent is expelled laterally.
Thermal dissemination devices, though common, are not particularly efficient. First, a percentage of the agent is lost by incineration in the initial blast and by being forced onto the ground. Second, the sizes of the particles vary greatly because explosive dissemination produces a mixture of liquid droplets of variable and difficult to control sizes.
The efficacy of thermal detonation is greatly limited by the flammability of some agents. For flammable aerosols, the cloud is sometimes totally or partially ignited by the disseminating explosion in a phenomenon called flashing. Explosively disseminated VX will ignite roughly one third of the time. Despite a great deal of study, flashing is still not fully understood, and a solution to the problem would be a major technological advance.
Despite the limitations of central bursters, most nations use this method in the early stages of chemical weapon development, in part because standard munitions can be adapted to carry the agents.
Aerodynamic dissemination is the non-explosive delivery of a chemical agent from an aircraft, allowing aerodynamic stress to disseminate the agent. This technique is the most recent major development in chemical agent dissemination, originating in the mid-1960s.
This technique eliminates many of the limitations of thermal dissemination by eliminating the flashing effect and theoretically allowing precise control of particle size. In actuality, the altitude of dissemination, wind direction and velocity, and the direction and velocity of the aircraft greatly influence particle size. There are other drawbacks as well; ideal deployment requires precise knowledge of aerodynamics and fluid dynamics, and because the agent must usually be dispersed within the boundary layer (less than 200–300 ft above the ground), it puts pilots at risk.
Significant research is still being applied toward this technique. For example, by modifying the properties of the liquid, its breakup when subjected to aerodynamic stress can be controlled and an idealized particle distribution achieved, even at supersonic speed. Additionally, advances in fluid dynamics, computer modeling, and weather forecasting allow an ideal direction, speed, and altitude to be calculated, such that weapon agent of a predetermined particle size can predictably and reliably hit a target.
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ARMIS BELLA NON VENENIS GERI
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While the study of chemicals and their military uses was widespread in China, the use of toxic materials has historically been viewed with mixed emotions and some disdain in the West.
One of the earliest reactions to the use of chemical agents was from Rome. Struggling to defend themselves from the Roman legions, Germanic tribes poisoned the wells of their enemies, with Roman jurists having been recorded as declaring "armis bella non venenis geri", meaning "war is fought with weapons, not with poisons."
Before 1915 the use of poisonous chemicals in battle was typically the result of local initiative, and not the result of an active government chemical weapons program. There are many reports of the isolated use of chemical agents in individual battles or sieges, but there was no true tradition of their use outside of incendiaries and smoke. Despite this tendency, there have been several attempts to initiate large-scale implementation of poison gas in several wars, but with the notable exception of World War I, the responsible authorities generally rejected the proposals for ethical reasons.
For example, in 1854 Lyon Playfair, a British chemist, proposed using a cyanide-filled artillery shell against enemy ships during the Crimean War. The British Ordnance Department rejected the proposal as "as bad a mode of warfare as poisoning the wells of the enemy."
| Nation | CW Possession | Signed CWC | Ratified CWC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | Known | January 141993 | May 111994 |
| China | Probable | January 131993 | April 41997 |
| Egypt | Probable | No | No |
| France | Probable | January 131993 | March 21995 |
| India | Known | January 141993 | September 31996 |
| Iran | Known | January 131993 | November 31997 |
| Israel | Probable | January 131993 | No |
| Libya | Known | No | January 62004 (acceded) |
| Myanmar (Burma) | Possible | January 131993 | No |
| North Korea | Known | No | No |
| Pakistan | Probable | January 131993 | October 281997 |
| Russia | Known | January 131993 | November 51997 |
| Serbia and Montenegro |
Probable | No | April 202000 (acceded) |
| Sudan | Possible | No | May 241999 (acceded) |
| Syria | Known | No | No |
| Taiwan | Possible | n/a | n/a |
| United States | Known | January 131993 | April 251997 |
| Vietnam | Probable |