Edward

Below is an article from "Washington Post".
If this information is truthfull, it is horrifying
Book details Soviet plans to wage germ warfare with lethal ‘designer’ strains - The Washington Post

"In the Soviet playbook for all-out war with the United States, the wasting of U.S. cities by nuclear bombs was to be followed by something equally horrifying: waves of plagues to kill any survivors. Soviet scientists spent decades preparing for the second attack, concocting new kinds of biological weapons more lethal than any ever invented.
None of these weapons were used during the Cold War, but a new book suggests that the dangers posed by the program never completely abated. The authors reveal new details about the deadly achievements of Soviet weapons scientists — from multiple-drug-resistant anthrax to “stealth” bugs that elude detection — and they say the strains probably still exist inside the freezers of military laboratories inside Russia."

Aulus Plautius

Biological weapons are the most insidious divided by humankind. The idea that they can be developed and then stored in deep freezes does not relieve the possibility that they may be released. Just look at the recent news with the Atlanta CDC where there was a real scare that a biological toxin may have been inadvertantly released.

Beyond that, I wonder if those nations that develop these biological agents realize that once they are released they can not be stopped. If the human race perishes from the face of the earth it may be because of these biological agents.

asnys

Something that really baffles me is, as far as we can tell, they never developed a way to deliver all these pathogens. Why bother developing a germ that you can't deliver? Of course, the whole thing is still pretty deeply classified, so maybe they did but we just haven't found out about it yet...

diddyriddick

Bingo. While I have no doubt that the Soviets did develop biological agents, everything I've read is that the did NOT have the capability to deliver them. You can't put them in a bomb. Typically, they have to be aerosolized.

asnys

Have you read The Soviet Biological Weapons Program: A History, by Milton Leitenberg and Raymond A. Zilinskas? It just came out, and it's supposedly the history of Soviet BW. I haven't read it yet, but it's close to the top of my list.

Ancientgeezer

You folks were obviously not in the armed forces in the 1960/1970s. British and Nato forces trained regularly under conditions that assumed NCB attack, that included climbing in and out of aircraft in CBW suits and stabbing oneself in the leg with fake injection ampules.
If the USSR did not have the facility to deliver biologial weapons to North America , they certainly had for Europe including via the water supply clandestinely in the days before an attack and on the battlefield via artillery and aircraft.
The UK Civil Defence had biological warfare precautions as its number two priority after nuclear attack. The UK also had (still has?) a place called Porton Down that developed far nastier retaliatory weapons than the Soviets ever thought of and is famous in Britain as the source of the 24Hr flu bug and the ineradicable MRSA flesh-eating bugs. (Oops! Did we let that escape?)

rehabnonono

Good point... have we let any escape? Delivery is not a problem from medium range so I imagine the Russian subs sitting off the coast could parachute a few in over coastal cities.

Edward

I was in Polish Air Force at that time.
We have been trained for n and C warfare and for “B”, but our gas mask did not have filter with submicron clearances to block viruses (So far as I know), so it was only good for bacterial agents.
We have been used equipment as this one:
There was no injection of vaccination training (unless we should be vaccinated prior hostilities for Warsaw Pact “manufactured”” viruses). For sure such vaccination was developed if the pseudo scientist had any sense of survival.

diddyriddick

I haven't. Most of my eductation on the subject came in the aftermath of 9/11 and our own Anthrax scare here in the US. Though I must say it does look intriguing.

diddyriddick

Some interesting data.

http://prelas.nuclear.missouri.edu/SugarCreek6-04.pdf