An Army helicopter ferried nine non-explosive chemical warfare munitions from Dugway Proving Ground to Deseret Chemical Depot Tuesday.
The helicopter's two trips, each about 35 miles, were to deliver 155 mm projectiles filled with GB nerve agent.
Eight weapons were shipped from Dugway in January 2001 to support testing in a program now canceled, in which the Army was developing a mobile system to destroy nerve gas weapons. The ninth was brought to Dugway in 1997 after it was found at Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, said Chuck Sprague, spokesman for Deseret Chemical Depot.
The depot, near Stockton, Tooele County, is where the Army's $1 billion incinerator has been destroying chemical weapons since 1996. The latest arrivals were added to the incinerator's campaign of destroying a stockpile of 155 mm projectiles. "To ensure safe transport, the munitions contained no explosives," Sprague said. Each item was sealed in a steel container called a multiple round container.