Recently, both in foreign and domestic media, there has been too much inaccurate information and, at times, outright speculations on the topic of chemical weapons. This article is a continuation of a cycle devoted to the history, state and prospects of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
More than 100 years have passed since the first gas attack in April 1915. The chlorine gas attack was carried out by the Germans on the Western Front near the town of Ypres (Belgium). The effect of this first attack was overwhelming, with a gap of up to 8 km in the enemy's defenses. The number of victims of the gas exceeded 15,000, about a third of them died. But as subsequent events showed, with the disappearance of the surprise effect and the appearance of means of protection, the effect of gas attacks decreased many times over. In addition, the efficient use of chlorine required the accumulation of significant volumes of this gas in cylinders. The very release of gas into the atmosphere was associated with a great risk, since the opening of the cylinder valves was carried out manually, and in the event of a change in the direction of the wind, chlorine could affect its troops. Subsequently, in the belligerent countries, new, more effective and safe to use chemical warfare agents (CWA) were created: phosgene and mustard gas. Artillery ammunition was filled with these poisons, which significantly reduced the risk to their troops.
On July 3, 1917, the military premiere of mustard gas took place, the Germans fired 50 thousand artillery chemical shells at the allied troops preparing for the offensive. The offensive of the Anglo-French troops was thwarted, and 2,490 people were defeated of varying severity, of whom 87 died.
At the beginning of 1917, BOV was in the arsenals of all states fighting in Europe, chemical weapons were repeatedly used by all parties to the conflict. Poisonous substances have declared themselves as a formidable new weapon. At the front, many phobias arose among the soldiers associated with poisonous and asphyxiant gases. Several times there were cases when military units, out of fear of BOV, left their positions, seeing a creeping fog of natural origin. The number of losses from chemical weapons in the war and neuropsychological factors intensified the effects of exposure to toxic substances. During the course of the war, it became obvious that chemical weapons are an extremely profitable method of warfare, suitable for both destroying the enemy and temporarily or long-term incapacitation in order to burden the economy of the opposing side.
The ideas of chemical warfare took strong positions in the military doctrines of all developed countries of the world, without exception, after the end of the First World War, its improvement and development continued. By the early 1920s, in addition to chlorine, chemical arsenals contained: phosgene, adamsite, chloroacetophenone, mustard gas, hydrocyanic acid, cyanogen chloride, and nitrogen mustard gas. Moreover, toxic substances were repeatedly used by Italy in Ethiopia in 1935 and Japan in China in 1937-1943.
Germany, as a country that was defeated in the war, had no right to have and develop BOV. Nevertheless, research in the field of chemical weapons continued. Unable to conduct large-scale tests on its territory, Germany in 1926 entered into an agreement with the USSR on the creation of the Tomka chemical test site in Shikhany. Since 1928, intensive tests have been carried out in Shikhany of various methods of using toxic substances, means of protection against chemical weapons, and methods of degassing military equipment and structures. After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, military cooperation with the USSR was curtailed and all research was transferred to its territory.
In 1936, a breakthrough was made in Germany in the field of the discovery of a new type of poisonous substances, which became the crown of the development of combat poisons. Chemist Dr. Gerhard Schrader, who worked in the insecticide laboratory of Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, synthesized the cyanamide of phosphoric acid ethyl ester, a substance that later became known as Tabun, in the course of research on the creation of insect control agents. This discovery predetermined the direction of development of CWA and became the first in a series of neuroparalytic poisons for military purposes. This poison immediately attracted the attention of the military, the lethal dose upon inhalation of the herd is 8 times less than that of phosgene. Death in case of poisoning by the herd occurs no later than 10 minutes later. The industrial production of the herd began in 1943 in Diechernfursch an der Oder near Breslau. By the spring of 1945, there were 8,770 tons of this BOV in Germany.
However, the German chemists did not rest on this, in 1939 the same doctor Schrader obtained isopropyl ether of methylfluorophosphonic acid - "Zarin". Sarin production began in 1944, and by the end of the war, 1,260 tons had been accumulated.
An even more toxic substance was Soman, obtained at the end of 1944; it is about 3 times more toxic than sarin. Soman was at the stage of laboratory and technological research and development until the very end of the war. In total, about 20 tons of soman were made.
Indicators of toxicity of toxic substances
In terms of the combination of physicochemical and toxic properties, sarin and soman are significantly superior to previously known toxic substances. They are suitable for use without any weather restrictions. They can be converted by explosion to a state of steam or fine aerosol. Soman in a thickened state can be used both in artillery shells and aerial bombs, and with the help of aircraft pouring devices. In severe lesions, the latent period of action of these BOV is practically absent. Death occurs as a result of paralysis of the respiratory center and heart muscle.
German artillery shells with BOV
The Germans managed not only to create new highly toxic types of toxic substances, but also to organize the mass production of ammunition. However, the top of the Reich, even suffering defeat on all fronts, did not dare to give the order to use new highly effective poisons. Germany had a clear advantage over its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition in the field of chemical weapons. If a chemical war were unleashed with the use of herd, sarin and soman, the allies would have faced the unsolvable problems of protecting troops from organophosphate toxic substances (OPT), which they were not familiar with at that time. The reciprocal use of mustard gas, phosgene and other known combat poisons, which formed the basis of their chemical arsenal, did not provide an adequate effect. In the 30-40s, the armed forces of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain had gas masks that protected from phosgene, adamsite, hydrocyanic acid, chloroacetophenone, cyanogen chloride and skin protection in the form of raincoats and capes against mustard and lewisite fumes. But they did not possess insulating properties from FOV. There were no gas detectors, antidotes and degassing agents. Fortunately for the allied armies, the use of nerve poisons against them did not take place. Of course, the use of new organophosphate BWA would not bring victory to Germany, but it could significantly increase the number of casualties, including among the civilian population.
After the end of the war, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union took advantage of German CWA developments to improve their chemical arsenals. In the USSR, a special chemical laboratory was organized, where German prisoners of war worked, and the technological unit for the synthesis of sarin in Diechernfursch an der Oder was dismantled and transported to Stalingrad.
The former allies also did not waste time, with the participation of German specialists led by G. Schrader in the United States in 1952, they launched at full capacity the newly built sarin plant on the territory of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.
The advances of German chemists in the field of nerve poisons have led to a dramatic expansion of the scope of work in other countries. In 1952, Dr. Ranaji Ghosh, an employee of the laboratory of plant protection chemicals of the British concern Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), synthesized an even more toxic substance from the phosphorylthiocholine class. The British, in accordance with a tripartite agreement between Great Britain, the United States and Canada, passed on the information about the discovery to the Americans. Soon in the USA, on the basis of the substance obtained by Gosh, the production of a neuroparalytic CWA, known under the designation VX, began. In April 1961, in the United States in New Port, Indiana, the plant for the production of the VX substance and the ammunition equipped with them was launched at full capacity. The productivity of the plant in 1961 was 5000 tons per year.
Around the same time, an analogue of the VX was received in the USSR. Its industrial production was carried out at enterprises near Volgograd and in Cheboksary. Nerve poisoning agent VX has become the pinnacle of the development of conventional combat poisons in terms of toxicity. VX is about 10 times more toxic than sarin. The main difference between VX and Sarin and Soman is its particularly high level of toxicity when applied to the skin. If the lethal doses of sarin and soman when exposed to the skin in a droplet-liquid state are equal to 24 and 1.4 mg / kg, respectively, then a similar dose of VX does not exceed 0.1 mg / kg. Organophosphate poisonous substances can be fatal even if exposed to the skin in a vapor state. The lethal dose of VX vapors is 12 times lower than that of sarin, and 7.5-10 times lower than that of soman. Differences in the toxicological characteristics of Sarin, Soman and VX lead to different approaches to their use in combat.
Nervoparalytic CWA, adopted for service, combine high toxicity with physicochemical properties close to ideal. These are mobile liquids that do not solidify at low temperatures, which can be used without restrictions in any weather conditions. Sarin, soman and VX are highly stable, do not react with metals and can be stored for a long time in casings and containers of delivery vehicles, and can be dispersed using explosives, by thermal sublimation, and by spraying from various devices.
At the same time, different degrees of volatility cause differences in the method of application. For example, sarin, due to the fact that it is easily vaporized, is more suitable for causing inhalation lesions. With a lethal dose of 75 mg.min / m ³, such a concentration of CWA on the target area can be created in 30-60 seconds using artillery or aviation ammunition. During this time, the enemy's manpower, which was attacked, provided that it did not put on gas masks in advance, will receive lethal defeats, since it will take some time to analyze the situation and issue a command to use protective equipment. Sarin, due to its volatility, does not create persistent contamination of the terrain and weapons, and can be used against enemy troops in direct contact with their troops, since by the time the enemy positions are captured, the poisonous substance will evaporate, and the danger of defeat for its troops will disappear. However, the use of sarin in a drip-liquid state is not effective, as it evaporates quickly.
On the contrary, the use of soman and VX is preferably in the form of a coarse aerosol for the purpose of inflicting lesions by acting on unprotected areas of the skin. The high boiling point and low volatility determine the safety of CWA droplets when drifting in the atmosphere, tens of kilometers from the place of their release into the atmosphere. Thanks to this, it is possible to create lesion areas that are 10 or more times larger than the affected areas by the same substance, converted into a vaporous volatile state. While putting on a gas mask, a person can inhale tens of liters of contaminated air. Protection against coarse aerosols or droplets of VX is much more difficult than against gaseous poisons. In this case, along with the protection of the respiratory system, it is necessary to protect the whole body from the settling droplets of the poisonous substance. The use of the insulating properties of only a gas mask and a field uniform for everyday wear does not provide the necessary protection. Soman and VX toxic substances, applied in an aerosol-droplet state, cause dangerous and long-term contamination of uniforms, protective suits, personal weapons, combat and transport vehicles, engineering structures and terrain, which makes the problem of protection against them difficult. The use of persistent toxic substances, in addition to the direct incapacitation of enemy personnel, as a rule, also has the goal of depriving the enemy of the opportunity to be on the contaminated area, as well as the inability to use equipment and weapons before degassing. In other words, in military units that have been attacked with the use of persistent BOV, even if they use the means of protection in a timely manner, their combat effectiveness inevitably decreases sharply.
Even the most advanced gas masks and combined arms protective kits have an adverse effect on personnel, exhausting and depriving of normal mobility due to the burdening effect of both a gas mask and skin protection, causing intolerable heat loads, limiting visibility and other perceptions necessary for controlling combat assets and communicating with each other. Due to the need to degass the contaminated equipment and personnel, sooner or later, the withdrawal of the military unit from the battle is required. Modern chemical weapons are a very serious means of destruction, and when they are used against troops that do not have adequate means of anti-chemical protection, a significant combat effect can be achieved.
The adoption of neuroparalytic poisonous agents marked the apogee in the development of chemical weapons. An increase in its combat power is not predicted in the future. Obtaining new toxic substances that, in terms of toxicity, would surpass modern toxic substances with a lethal effect and at the same time would have optimal physicochemical properties (liquid state, moderate volatility, the ability to inflict damage when exposed through the skin, the ability to be absorbed into porous materials and paint coatings, etc.) etc.) is not expected.
A repository of American 155-mm artillery shells filled with a nerve agent.
The peak of the development of BOV was reached in the 70s, when the so-called binary ammunition appeared. The body of a chemical binary munition is used as a reactor in which the final stage of the synthesis of a toxic substance from two relatively low-toxic components is carried out. Their mixing in artillery shells is carried out at the time of the shot, due to the destruction due to the huge overloads of the partition of the separating component, the rotational movement of the projectile in the barrel bore enhances the mixing process. The transition to binary chemical weapons provides clear benefits at the manufacturing stage, during transportation, storage and subsequent disposal of ammunition.
