Binary weapons programs

Uhe stockpile (the subject of the Amy s Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program) consists of (1) bulk containers of nerve and blister agents and (2) munitions, including rockets, mines, bombs, projectiles, and spray tanks, loaded with nerve or blister agents. Buried chemical warfare materiel, recovered chemical warfare materiel, binary weapons (in which two nonlethal components are mixed after firing to yield a lethal nerve agent), former production facilities, and miscellaneous chemical warfare materiel are not included in the stockpile. The disposition of these five classes of materials is the subject of a separate Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Pro-... 

Binary Weapons Implications of the US Chemical Stockpile Modernization Program for Chemical Weapons Proliferation, Subcommittee for International Security and Scientific Affairs of the Conunittee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, 24 April 1984. 

The term unitary refers to a single chemical loaded in munitions or stored as a lethal material. Binary munitions have two relatively safe chemicals loaded into separate compartments the chemicals are mixed to form a lethal agent only after the munition is fired or released. The components of binary munitions are stockpiled separately, in separate states, and are not included in the present Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program. However, under the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, they are included in the munitions that will be destroyed. 

Brankowitz WR (1987). Chemical weapons movement history compilation. ADA193348. Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD Office of the Program Manager for chemical munitions (demilitarization and binary). 

Ibid., pp.41-4, 51 see also US GAO, Chemical Weapons Status of the Army s M687 Binary Program, GAO/NSIAD-90-295 (September 1990). 

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