The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate (CMA RCMD) has completed several chemical demilitarization operations at Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA), Arkansas, a U.S. military installation with a history of chemical weapons production, testing, and storage. These missions include the destruction of chemical weapons production facilities and the decontamination and recycling of more than 4,300 empty steel containers that once held hazardous materials.
This video was recorded during the first Explosive Destruction System operation at PBA, which began in 2006. This four-year operation destroyed more than 1,200 recovered chemical warfare munitions, the largest declared recovered chemical warfare materiel inventory to date.
RCMD returned to Pine Bluff Arsenal for three additional EDS operations in 2013, 2019 and 2021 to destroy chemical warfare materiel recovered during the Army’s environmental remediation efforts at PBA.