Iraqi CW and BW
Filename:001mc.90
1990
Subject: Iraqi CW and BW
Iraq has developed a growing capability to produce its own CW
munitions and a wide arsenal of weapons to employ them. Since
1987, the Soviet Union and other East European countries have
reduced their support in this area. The Chemical agents
available to Iraq are best suited for defensive operations,
although they have been used in the offensive role. The Iraqis
used chemicals during several of their offensive operations in
1988, however, prior to 1988 Iraq used chemicals in defensive
operations. The Iraqis mixed CW with conventional fire to stop
Iranian massed infantry assaults and reportedly used chemical
agents during preparatory artillery fire in an attack against
Iranian positions. Also, Iraq's tactics call for the use of
more than one agent at a time. There are at least three known
types of tactics employed by Iraq; assault breaker, rear area
disruptive, and front line disruptive.
Iraq possesses the largest chemical weapons capability in the
entire Middle East and has the capacity to increase its
stockpile significantly in the future. This has been
accomplished despite western diplomatic pressure and economic
sanctions against acquisition of requisite materials. Based on
U. S. modeling of Iraq's production facilities, Iraq is
producing or capable of producing sulfur mustard at an
estimated rate of up to 150 tonnes per month, and sarin and
tabun at 20 tonnes and five to ten tonnes per month
respectively. Production of GF has not been estimated but
should be similar to that of sarin. More recently, the Iraqis
may be entering into the production of the nerve agent VX, but
quantities cannot be estimated. It is estimated that the
Iraqis now have as much as 1,000 tonnes of agent (of all
types) in their stockpile. Iraq may be investigating the use
of other agents, including the psychochemicals BZ and EA3443.
Iraq has established a biological warfare program which could
provide them with an operational capability in the near term.
The current BW capability consists of both infectious and
toxin agents. The infectious agents include bacillus,
anthraces, vibrio cholerae, clostridium perfringens, botulinum
toxin and staphylococcai enterotoxin. The Iraqi BW program is
believed to be supported at the highest level of the
government, with President Saddam Husayn having direct
responsibility for all key policy issues related to the BW
program. No specific BW delivery systems have been identified,
although artillery shells and aerosol generating machines
(noted in the Iraqi inventory) could be used in the field to
effectively generate and disperse airborne BW agents. The
Iraqi BW program is at the scale-up production stage. The
operating concepts of development and the rate of evolution of
the Iraqi BW program appear to parallel those of its CW
program. The time between scale-up and first use of a CW agent
by Iraq was approximately three to four years. However, the
time necessary for BW research, development, and acquisition
will likely be less. The Armed Forces Medical Intelligence
Center, Fort Detrick, MD has assessed that if the Iran-lraq
war had lasted another year, BW weapons would have been
employed by Iraq.
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