Workers at the Anniston Field Office in Alabama destroyed the last non-contaminated rocket motors from Kentucky April 3, completing the destruction support the Anniston team has provided the Kentucky and Colorado plants since 2014.
“We have completed our mission, achieved our goal, and taken the program a step closer to final closure,” said Tim Garrett, director of field operations, Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives. “I’m proud of what the Alabama team has done to contribute to the program executive office mission in many different ways.”
Technicians used a Static Detonation Chamber, or SDC, at the Anniston Army Depot to destroy 68,757 non-contaminated motors from GB and VX nerve agent rockets, classified as secondary waste, trucked there from the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or BGCAPP. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors will verify destruction of these rocket motors satisfies the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty requirements for Anniston.
The approximately 65-member team also previously destroyed 978,531 non-agent contaminated components from the former munitions stockpile at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot.
The first motors were sent to Alabama in November 2021, and destruction began after all environmental permitting was complete.
“The Anniston team has been great to work with,” said Shannon Pendergrass, site project manager, BGCAPP. “Their expertise and efficient work allowed us to focus on the primary mission here in Kentucky of destroying chemical weapons and completing the destruction of remaining secondary waste.”
BGCAPP workers completed the destruction of the nation’s declared chemical weapons stockpile July 7, 2023, when the last M55 rocket containing GB nerve agent was destroyed. The Blue Grass team destroyed the last M55 rocket containing VX nerve agent April 19, 2022. The motors were packaged and transported to the Anniston facility during the M55 VX and GB rocket destruction campaigns.
The Anniston SDC will now be decommissioned and demolished. The Anniston Army Depot will continue its other traditional military missions.
