The U.S. Army Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate (RCMD) responds nationwide to planned and unplanned chemical munition recoveries. Chemical warfare materiel is most often recovered at military installations where chemical weapons were manufactured, tested or stored.
Historically, burial was an accepted method of chemical materiel disposal, and munitions are periodically recovered during environmental remediation of old burial sites. The most common RCWM are projectiles, which are artillery shells fired from cannons, and mortar shells.