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NSIAD-85-3 1 (1984-10-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabnnv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE WASHINGTON. D.C. 20548 ' . . .. . ....OCTOBER 30. 1984 NATIONAL SECURITY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS DIVISION B-215969 RELEASEDIlMII IIII The Honorable Ed Bethune 125707 house of Representatives Subject: Reporting on Chemical Testing of the Bigeye Binary Chemical Bomb (GAO/NSIAD-85-3) Dear Mr. Bethune: In your letters of October 4, 17, and 20, 1983, you requested information on whether the Department of Defense (DOD) had intentionally withheld information from the Congress on the Bigeye binary chemical bomb's test failures, primarily through- out calendar year 1982 and the first 4 months of calendar year 1983. Subsequently, we discussed our findings and conclusions at several meetings with you and your staff. Details of our review are included as enclosure I. On June 6, 1984, you asked us to give you a written report on our findings and to include information on why congressional critics of the system had not been made aware of a January 1984 test failure involving the bomb's impulse cartridge until just before the May 1984 debate in the House on the fiscal year 1985 Defense Authorization Act. Also, you asked that we include our evaluation of DOD's fiscal year 1985 budget request for binary chemical weapons. In accordance with your October requests, our report discusses testing of the Bigeye since the program was restarted in 1976. After the program resumed through 1981, there were eight chemical tests to update earlier program tests on the chemicals. In December 1981, the Secretary of Defense directed that the program be accelerated so that production could start in fiscal year 1984. As a result there were several tests in 1982. We focused primarily on the events surrounding an October 1982 test failure which later necessitated a restructuring of the program. The test failure resulted from a chemical reaction which involved a rapid increase in temperature and pressure to such an extreme that an inner section of the bomb was forced out the rear of the weapon. (393006)

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