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The Future of Chemical Warfare

"Whether or not gas will be employed in future wars is a matter of conjecture, but the effect is so deadly to the unprepared that we can never afford to neglect the question."     

(General Pershing)

Binary weapons are an important facet of the US military's current stockpile. In the 1980's the military made a concerted effort to integrate nerve agents and modern technology. Military was seeking to increase the safety of working with nerve agents while maintaining their effectiveness in the battlefield. Unfortunately the research done in making binary weapons proved to be futile because binary weapons were never used and leaked after being put in storage. The effectiveness of these newly developed chemical weapons was also a subject of controversy. Many contemporary military strategists have doubts over the effectiveness of modern nerve agents in warfare. Some of the problems that they point out are: environmental dependency, can't be used to destroy military targets, there are protection techniques, unpredictable windshifts can endanger your own forces, possibility of civilian casualties, and the highly specialized operation and handling skills.

The future of chemical warfare seems bright because of the recent agreement on the need to destroy stockpiles. Unfortunately, terrorists are now using nerve agents to instill fear in the public. The fear associated with nerve agents is very real and can only be eliminated with the complete destruction of modern stockpiles. "One of these days it is going to happen. We're going to have to fight a chemical war and when that happens we need to be as ready as we can possibly be and we need to be as well trained." (General Schwarzkopf)