List of U.S. biological weapons topics

The United States had a biological weapons program from 1943 until 1969. Today, the nation is a member of the Biological Weapons Convention

Biological Weapons Convention

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the...

and has renounced biological warfare.

Military and government agencies and schools

National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center
National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center
The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center is a government biodefense research laboratory created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and located at the sprawling biodefense campus at Fort Detrick in Frederick, MD, USA. Created quietly a few months after the 2001 anthrax...
Strategic National Stockpile
Strategic National Stockpile
The Strategic National Stockpile is the United States' national repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins and other critical medical equipment and supplies...
United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories
United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories
The U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories were a suite of research laboratories and pilot plant centers operating at Camp Detrick, Maryland, USA beginning in 1943 under the control of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Research and Development Command...

(USBWL)
United States Army Chemical Corps
United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is the U.S Army’s main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located on Fort Detrick, Maryland and is a subordinate lab of the U. S...

(USAMRIID)
War Bureau of Consultants
War Bureau of Consultants
The War Bureau of Consultants was a committee of 12 prominent scientists and several government consultants put together in November 1941 to investigate the feasibility of a U.S. bio-weapons program. The bureau's recommendations led to the creation of an official U.S...
War Research Service
War Research Service
The War Research Service was a civilian agency of the United States government established during World War II to pursue research relating to biological warfare. Established in May 1942 by Secretary of War Henry L...

Biological weapons program locations

United States biological weapons program
Dugway Proving Ground
Dugway Proving Ground
Dugway Proving Ground is a US Army facility located approximately 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah in southern Tooele County and just north of Juab County...

Granite Peak Range
- Edgewood Arsenal
- Fort Detrick
  Fort Detrick
  Fort Detrick is a U.S. Army Medical Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland, USA. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center for the United States' biological weapons program ....
  
  and the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories
Building 470
Building 470
Building 470, called the “Pilot Plant” or sometimes “Anthrax Tower”, was a notorious seven-story steel and brick building at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, USA, used in the small-scale production of biological warfare agents...
One-Million-Liter Test Sphere
One-Million-Liter Test Sphere
The One-Million-Liter Test Sphere — also known as the Test Sphere, the Horton Test Sphere, the Cloud Study Chamber, Building 527, and the “Eight Ball” — is a decommissioned biological warfare chamber and testing facility located on Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA. It was constructed and utilized by...
- Fort Douglas, Utah
  Fort Douglas, Utah
  Camp Douglas was established in October 1862 as a small military garrison about three miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah, for the purpose of protecting the overland mail route and telegraph lines along the Central Overland Route. In 1878, the post was renamed Fort Douglas. The fort was officially...
Deseret Test Center
Deseret Test Center
The Deseret Test Center was a U.S. Army operated command in charge of testing chemical and biological weapons during the 1960s. Deseret was headquartered at Fort Douglas, Utah.-History:...
- Fort Terry
  Fort Terry
  Fort Terry was a coastal fortification on Plum Island, a small island just off Orient Point, New York, USA. This strategic position afforded it a commanding view over the Atlantic entrance to the commercially vital Long Island Sound. It was established in 1897 and used intermittently through the...
  
  /Plum Island Animal Disease Center
  Plum Island Animal Disease Center
  Plum Island Animal Disease Center is a United States federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases. It is part of the DHS Directorate for Science and Technology....
Building 101
Building 257
Building 257
Building 257, also known as Lab 257, was a U.S. biological warfare research laboratory located at Fort Terry on Plum Island, New York. Originally intended for munitions storage, the facility researched anti-animal biological agents beginning in 1952 under the U.S. Army. Biological warfare research...
- Horn Island Testing Station
- Pine Bluff Arsenal
  Pine Bluff Arsenal
  The Pine Bluff Arsenal is a US Army installation located in Jefferson County, Arkansas, just northwest of the city of Pine Bluff. PBA is one of the six Army installations in the United States that store chemical weapons...
- Rocky Mountain Arsenal
  Rocky Mountain Arsenal
  The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was a United States chemical weapons manufacturing center located in the Denver Metropolitan Area in Commerce City, Colorado...
- Vigo Ordnance Plant
  Vigo Ordnance Plant
  The Vigo Ordnance Plant, also known as the Vigo Chemical Plant or simply Vigo Plant, was a U.S. Army facility built in 1942 to produce conventional weapons. In 1944 it was converted to produced biological agents for the U.S. bio-weapons program. The plant never produced any bio-weapons before the...

Treaties, laws and policies

Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989
Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989
The Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 was a piece of U.S. legislation that was passed into law in 1990. It provided for the implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention as well as criminal penalties for violation of its provisions...
Biological Weapons Convention
Biological Weapons Convention
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the...
Geneva Protocol
Geneva Protocol
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the first use of chemical and biological weapons. It was signed at Geneva on June 17, 1925 and entered...
Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs
Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs
The "Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs" was a speech delivered on November 25, 1969, by U.S. President Richard Nixon. In the speech, Nixon announced the end of the U.S. offensive biological weapons program and reaffirmed a no-first-use policy for chemical weapons...

Canceled weapons

E77 balloon bomb
E77 balloon bomb
The E77 balloon bomb was a U.S. anti-crop biological munition based on the design of Japanese fire balloons. The E77 used feathers as a vector to disseminate anti-crop agents from a hydrogen-filled balloon and was first developed in 1950.-Background:...
E99 bomblet
Flettner rotor, an experimental biological cluster bomb sub-munition
Project St. Jo
SPD Mk I, 4 lb. WWII-era biological bomb

Other weapons

20 mm particulate projectile
E120 bomblet
E120 bomblet
The E120 bomblet was a biological cluster bomb sub-munition developed to disseminate a liquid biological agent. The E120 was developed by the United States in the early 1960s.-History:...
E133 bomb, 750 lb. cluster bomb, held 544 bomblets
E14 munition
E14 munition
The E14 munition was a cardboard sub-munition developed by the United States biological weapons program as an anti-crop weapon...

, sub-muntion for E86 cluster bomb
E23 munition
E23 munition
The E23 munition was a cardboard sub-munition developed by the United States biological weapons program for use as an anti-crop weapon. The E23 underwent a conversion for use as a vector weapon and was briefly used in large-scale entomological warfare trial but technical issues forced it from the...

, sub-munition for E77 cluster bomb
E48 particulate bomb
E48 particulate bomb
The E48 particulate bomb was a U.S. biological sub-munition designed during the 1950s for use with the E96 cluster bomb.-History:In February 1950 a U.S. Army report prepared by William Creasy, a colonel within the U.S. bio-weapons program, noted that the E48 particulate bomb was in its final stages...

(E48R2), sub-munition for E96 cluster
E61 bomb (E61R4)
E86 cluster bomb
E86 cluster bomb
The E86 cluster bomb was an American biological cluster bomb first developed in 1951. Though the U.S. military intended to procure 6,000 E86s, the program was halted in the first half of the 1950s.-History:...
E95 bomblet
E96 cluster bomb
E96 cluster bomb
The E96 cluster bomb was an American anti-personnel biological cluster bomb developed in 1950.-History:A February 24, 1950 report prepared by William M. Creasy, a colonel in the Army Chemical Corps' Research and Engineering Division, characterized the E96 cluster bomb as in the final stages of...
M114 bomb
M114 bomb
The M114 bomb was a four pound U.S. anti-personnel bomb and biological cluster bomb sub-munition. The M114 was used in the M33 cluster bomb.-History:...

, 4 lb. biological anti-personnel bomb, sub-munition for the M33 cluster bomb
M115 bomb
M115 bomb
The M115 anti-crop bomb, also known as the feather bomb or the E73 bomb, was a U.S. biological cluster bomb designed to deliver wheat stem rust.-History:...

, a 500 lb. anti-crop bomb
M143 bomblet
M143 bomblet
The M143 bomblet was a biological cluster bomb sub-munition developed by the United States during the 1960s. The spherical bomblet was the biological version of the Sarin-filled M139 chemical bomblet.-History:...
M33 cluster bomb
M33 cluster bomb
The M33 cluster bomb, also known as the Brucella cluster bomb, was a U.S. biological cluster bomb developed in the early 1950s and deployed in 1952. It was the first standardized biological weapon in the U.S. arsenal.-History:...
SUU-24/A dispenser

Weaponized biological agents

anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...

, caused by Bacillus anthracis
Bacillus anthracis
Bacillus anthracis is the pathogen of the Anthrax acute disease. It is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, with a width of 1-1.2µm and a length of 3-5µm. It can be grown in an ordinary nutrient medium under aerobic or anaerobic conditions.It is one of few bacteria known to...
Ames strain
Ames strain
The Ames strain is one of 89 known strains of the anthrax bacterium . It was isolated from a diseased 14-month old Beefmaster heifer that died in Sarita, Texas in 1981. The strain was isolated at the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory and a sample was sent to the United States Army...
tularemia
Tularemia
Tularemia is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. A Gram-negative, nonmotile coccobacillus, the bacterium has several subspecies with varying degrees of virulence. The most important of those is F...

, caused by Francisella tularensis
Francisella tularensis
Francisella tularensis is a pathogenic species of gram-negative bacteria and the causative agent of tularemia or rabbit fever. It is a facultative intracellular bacterium....
brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...

, caused by Brucella suis
Q-fever, caused by Coxiella burnetii
Coxiella burnetii
Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen, and is the causative agent of Q fever. The genus Coxiella is morphologically similar to Rickettsia, but with a variety of genetic and physiological differences. C...
VEE
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus is a mosquito-borne viral pathogen that causes Venezuelan equine encephalitis or encephalomyelitis . VEE can affect all equine species, such as horses, donkeys, and zebras. After infection, equines may suddenly die or show progressive central nervous system...
botulism
Botulism
Botulism also known as botulinus intoxication is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulinum toxin which is metabolic waste produced under anaerobic conditions by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and affecting a wide range of mammals, birds and fish...

, botulin toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium that produces several toxins. The best known are its neurotoxins, subdivided in types A-G, that cause the flaccid muscular paralysis seen in botulism. It is also the main paralytic agent in botox. C. botulinum is an anaerobic...
Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B
Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B is an enterotoxin produced by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. It is a common cause of food poisoning, with severe diarrhea, nausea and intestinal cramping often starting within a few hours of ingestion.. Being quite stable, the toxin may remain active even after...

(SEB), toxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus aureus is a facultative anaerobic Gram-positive coccal bacterium. It is frequently found as part of the normal skin flora on the skin and nasal passages. It is estimated that 20% of the human population are long-term carriers of S. aureus. S. aureus is the most common species of...

, used as an incapacitating agent
Stem rust
Stem rust
The stem, black or cereal rusts are caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis and are a significant disease affecting cereal crops. An epidemic of stem rust on wheat caused by race Ug99 is currently spreading across Africa, Asia and most recently into Middle East and is causing major concern due to...

, 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
Bolivian hemorrhagic fever
Bolivian hemorrhagic fever , also known as black typhus or Ordog Fever, is a hemorrhagic fever and zoonotic infectious disease originating in Bolivia after infection by Machupo virus....

(BHF)
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV)
Dengue fever
Dengue fever
Dengue fever , also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles...
Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE)
Hantavirus
Hantavirus
Hantaviruses are negative sense RNA viruses in the Bunyaviridae family. Humans may be infected with hantaviruses through rodent bites, urine, saliva or contact with rodent waste products...
Lassa fever
Lassa fever
Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus and first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria, in the Yedseram river valley at the south end of Lake Chad. Clinical cases of the disease had been known for over a decade but had not been connected...
Late blight of potato
glanders
Glanders
Glanders is an infectious disease that occurs primarily in horses, mules, and donkeys. It can be contracted by other animals such as dogs, cats and goats...
melioidosis
Melioidosis
Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by a Gram-negative bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei, found in soil and water. It is of public health importance in endemic areas, particularly in Thailand and northern Australia. It exists in acute and chronic forms. Symptoms may include pain in...
Newcastle disease
Newcastle disease
Newcastle disease is a contagious bird disease affecting many domestic and wild avian species. First found in Newcastle, United Kingdom in 1926, then by Burnet in 1943 in Australia in connection with laboratory infection where the virus was isolated from a ocular discharge of a patient to show the...
Plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
Psittacosis
Psittacosis
In medicine , psittacosis — also known as parrot disease, parrot fever, and ornithosis — is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Chlamydophila psittaci and contracted from parrots, such as macaws, cockatiels and budgerigars, and pigeons, sparrows, ducks, hens, gulls and many...
Smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
Ricin
Ricin
Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein. A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult. The LD50 of ricin is around 22 micrograms per kilogram Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally...
Rift Valley fever
Rift Valley fever
Rift Valley Fever is a viral zoonosis causing fever. It is spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes, typically the Aedes or Culex genera. The disease is caused by the RVF virus, a member of the genus Phlebovirus...

(RVF)
Rinderpest
Rinderpest
Rinderpest was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some other species of even-toed ungulates, including buffaloes, large antelopes and deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. After a global eradication campaign, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001...
Typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
Western equine encephalitis (WEE)
Yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

Biological attacks

1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of 751 individuals in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, through the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with salmonella...
2001 anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
2003 ricin letters
2003 ricin letters
The 2003 ricin letters refer to two ricin-laden letters found on two separate occasions between October and November 2003. One letter was mailed to the White House and intercepted at a processing facility; another was discovered with no address in South Carolina...

Operations and exercises

Edgewood Arsenal experiments
Edgewood Arsenal experiments
The Edgewood Arsenal experiments are said to be related to or part of CIA mind-control programs after World War II, such as MKULTRA. Journalist Linda Hunt, citing records from the U.S...
Operation Big Buzz
Operation Big Buzz
Operation Big Buzz was a U.S. military entomological warfare field test conducted in the U.S. state of Georgia in 1955. The tests involved dispersing over 300,000 yellow fever mosquitoes from aircraft and through ground dispersal methods.-Operation:...
Operation Big Itch
Operation Big Itch
Operation Big Itch was a U.S. entomological warfare field test using uninfected fleas to determine their coverage and survivability as a vector for biological agents. The tests were conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in 1954.-Operation:...
Operation Blue Skies
Operation Dark Winter
Operation Dark Winter
Operation Dark Winter was the code name for a senior-level bio-terrorist attack simulation conducted from June 22–23, 2001. It was designed to carry out a mock version of a covert and widespread smallpox attack on the United States...
Operation Dew
Operation Dew
Operation Dew refers to two separate field trials conducted by the United States in the 1950s. The tests were designed to study the behavior of aerosol-released biological agents.-General description:...
Operation Drop Kick
Operation Drop Kick
Operation Drop Kick was a 1956 U.S. entomological warfare field testing program that deployed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to carry a biological warfare agent...
Operation LAC
Operation LAC
Operation LAC , was a U.S. Army Chemical Corps operation which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents.-Earlier tests:There were tests that occurred prior...
Operation Magic Sword
Operation Magic Sword
Operation Magic Sword was a 1965 U.S. military operation designed to test the effectiveness of the sea-borne release of insect vectors for biological agents.-Operation:...
Operation May Day
Operation May Day
Operation May Day was a series of entomological warfare tests conducted by the U.S. military in Savannah, Georgia in 1956.-Operation:Operation May Day involved a series of EW tests from April to November 1956. The tests were designed to reveal information about the dispersal of yellow fever...
Operation Polka Dot
Operation Polka Dot
Operation Polka Dot was a U.S. Army test of a biological cluster bomb during the early 1950s.-Operation:Operation Polka Dot was a field test of the E133 cluster bomb undertaken at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah during the early 1950s. The operation was detailed in a July 18, 1955 U.S. Army report...
Operation Top Off
Operation Whitecoat
Operation Whitecoat
Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a medical research program carried out by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland during the period 1954–1973. The program involved conducting medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who eventually became nicknamed "White Coats"...
Project 112
Project 112
Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapons experimentation project conducted by the US Army from 1962 to 1973. The project started under John F. Kennedy's administration, and was authorized by his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, as part of a total review of the US military. The name...
Project Bacchus
Project Bacchus
Project Bacchus was a covert investigation by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency US Defense Department to determine whether it is possible to construct a bioweapons production facility with off-the-shelf equipment.-Revelation to the public:...
Project Clear Vision
Project Clear Vision
Project Clear Vision was a covert investigation of Soviet-built biological bomblets conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute under contract with the CIA. The legality of this project under the Biological Weapons Convention is highly disputed....
Project Jefferson
Project Jefferson
Project Jefferson was a covert U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency program designed to determine if the current anthrax vaccine was effective against genetically-modified bacteria...