Although the Army tried to close Dugway Proving Ground last year, Pentagon officials now say it is a key to a new effort to develop better defenses against chemical and germ weapons.
That is music to the ears of Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, who persuaded the Army last year to reverse closure plans by arguing Dugway is one of the few places with the environmental permits, remoteness and facilities to allow such defensive testing.It also means the Rhode Island-size base in the western desert is expected to host more lab and field trials on protective clothing, agent detectors and decontamination methods.
Pentagon officials say such work will pose no off-base threat. However, in recent years, controversy has swirled around Dugway's testing of radiological, chemical and germ defenses from the 1940s to the '80s - testing that was often secret and hazardous.
Theodore M. Prociv, deputy assistant defense secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, told a House National Security subcommittee Tuesday the military is gearing up a new effort to improve chemical and germ weapon defenses - and Dugway will host many of those tests.
That came as the U.S. General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress, issued a report at the same hearing saying, "U.S. forces still lack the ability to adequately defend against chemical and/-or biological agents" - five years after the Persian Gulf War raised red flags about that.
The GAO complained the military has not adequately trained soldiers to handle germ and chemical attacks and has shortages of protective gear, such gear is cumbersome in battle and detectors can't warn about many types of germs or chemicals or can't detect them before soldiers are already exposed to them.
That comes as more "rogue" nations, such as North Korea, Libya, Iran and Iraq, are developing chemical and germ arms as sort of a poor-man's nuclear bomb, Prociv said.
"There are over 20 countries with known or suspected chemical and biological weapons programs," he said.
Maj. Gen. George F. Friel, commander of the U.S. Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command, added, "If potential enemies know that our troops are well-protected, then the use of such agents will be high risk with low payoff."
So he said the military is working hard to develop detectors that could warn of such attack when chemical or germ agents are at least 5 kilometers upwind, detectors that can find twice as many agents, improved protective masks and shelters, lightweight protective suits and more environmentally friendly decontamination agents.
When Hansen asked if much of the testing for such items will be conducted at Dugway, Prociv said yes and that Dugway is a unique facility - with no other quite like it - to allow remote testing before fielding such equipment. Hansen noted he made such arguments last year to help save the base.
Prociv said Dugway already hosts an annual "shoot-off" to determine which germ and chemical agent detectors are most effective in finding the most agents the quickest.
But Prociv said actual germ and chemical agents are not used in open-air tests at Dugway. He said safe substances that simulate the characteristics of the more dangerous agents are used instead.
Prociv said dangerous agents are used only inside laboratories that have high-tech filters and safety systems to prevent outside release. "Nothing can get out of those labs short of an explosion that tears the building down," he said.
Of note, scientists in the past have claimed supposedly safe "simulants" that Dugway used in past tests were also dangerous.
And while the Army has said it is in a new era of more safety and openness, Deseret News and government probes have shown Dug-way in past decades conducted 1,174 open-air tests or firings of chemical agent-filled arms, 328 open-air germ warfare defense tests, 74 radiological weapons tests and eight meltdowns of small nuclear reactors.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the House National Security Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, said more chemical and germ defense research is needed not only for the military, but also to help protect police, firefighters and residents from possible terrorist attacks with such arms.