A. Casale
MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts, United States
Keywords: CWA, Elimination, Thermal, Chemical, Operation
The chemical weapons (CW) threat posed by state and non-state actors continues to be a top concern for the defense community. Addressing this threat may include military missions to disable or destroy CW stockpiles in nonpermissive or hostile environments. Critical to mission success will be capabilities that enable timely elimination of chemical warfare agents and their precursors, which may be present in a range of configurations. Under the sponsorship of DTRA, MIT Lincoln Laboratory conducted a study to identify promising technologies and system architectures for CW elimination. Outcomes from this study can inform future initiatives to develop and demonstrate advanced capabilities to destroy CW threats. For the purposes of this study, the technology approaches assessed are a selection of thermal and chemical options; of primary importance is the consideration of the feasibility of using a particular piece of technology, including imperatives that reflect the technology readiness and implementation for threat agent destruction. The analysis discussed on this poster provides a methodology to prioritize and identify promising options amongst a list of historical, current, and emerging chemical agent destruction technologies.