Major General James G. Blunt

The United States had an offensive biological weapons program from 1943 until 1969. Today, the nation is a member of the Biological Weapons Convention and has renounced biological warfare.

Agencies and organizations

Military and government agencies and schools

• United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (USBWL)
• United States Army Chemical Corps
• War Bureau of Consultants
• War Research Service

Biological weapons program locations

• United States biological weapons program

• Dugway Proving Ground

• Granite Peak Range

• Edgewood Arsenal
• Fort Detrick and the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories

• Building 470
• One-Million-Liter Test Sphere

• Fort Douglas, Utah

• Deseret Test Center

• Fort Terry/Plum Island Animal Disease Center

• Building 101
• Building 257

• Horn Island Testing Station
• Pine Bluff Arsenal
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal
• Vigo Ordnance Plant

Treaties, laws and policies

• Biological Weapons Convention
• Geneva Protocol
• Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs

Weapons

Canceled weapons

• E77 balloon bomb
• E99 bomblet
• Flettner rotor, an experimental biological cluster bomb sub-munition
• Project St. Jo
• SPD Mk I, 4 lb. World War II-era biological bomb

Other weapons

• 20 mm particulate projectile
• E120 bomblet
• [50 lb. cluster bomb, held 544 bomblets
• E14 munition, sub-munition for E86 cluster bomb
• E23 munition, sub-munition for E77 cluster bomb
• E48 particulate bomb (E48R2), sub-munition for E96 cluster
• E61 bomb (E61R4)
• E86 cluster bomb
• E95 bomblet
• E96 cluster bomb
• M114 bomb, 4 lb. biological anti-personnel bomb, sub-munition for the M33 cluster bomb
• M115 bomb, a 500 lb. anti-crop bomb
• M143 bomblet
• M33 cluster bomb
• SUU-24/A dispenser

Weaponized biological agents

• anthrax, caused by Bacillus anthracis

• Ames strain

• tularemia, caused by Francisella tularensis
• brucellosis, caused by Brucella suis
• Q-fever, caused by Coxiella burnetii
• botulism
• Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B (SEB), toxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus, used as an incapacitating agent
• Stem rust, both wheat and rye stem rust, fungal anticrop agent
• Rice blast, fungal anticrop agent

Researched biological agents

• Argentinian hemorrhagic fever (AHF)
• Bird flu
• Bolivian hemorrhagic fever (BHF)
• Chikungunya virus (CHIKV)
• Dengue fever
• Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE)
• Hantavirus
• Lassa fever
• Late blight of potato
• glanders
• melioidosis
• Newcastle disease
• Plague
• Psittacosis
• Smallpox
• Ricin (technically a chemical weapon)
• Rift Valley fever (RVF)
• Rinderpest
• Typhus
• Western equine encephalitis (WEE)
• Yellow fever

Operations and exercises

• Edgewood Arsenal experiments
• Operation Big Buzz
• Operation Big Itch
• Operation Blue Skies
• Operation Dark Winter
• Operation Dew
• Operation Drop Kick
• Operation LAC
• Operation Magic Sword
• Operation May Day
• Operation Polka Dot
• Operation Top Off
• Operation Whitecoat
• Project 112
• Project Bacchus
• Project Clear Vision
• Project Jefferson

Biological attacks

• 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
• 1989 California medfly attack
• 2001 anthrax attacks
• 2003 ricin letters

See also

• List of U.S. chemical weapons topics
• United States and weapons of mass destruction

References

• "Chemical and Biological Weapons: Possession and Programs Past and Present", James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury College, April 9, 2002, accessed November 12, 2008.
• "Biological Weapons", Federation of American Scientists, updated October 19, 1998, accessed November 12, 2008.
• Croddy, Eric C. and Hart, C. Perez-Armendariz J., Chemical and Biological Warfare, (Google Books), Springer, 2002, pp. 30–31, (ISBN 0387950761).
• Kirby, Reid. "The CB Battlefield Legacy: Understanding the Potential Problem of Clustered CB Weapons", Army Chemical Review, pp. 25–29, July–December 2006, accessed November 12, 2008.
• Kirby, Reid. "The Evolving Role of Biological Weapons", Army Chemical Review, pp. 22–26, July–December 2007, accessed November 12, 2008.