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Although the nation's C.W. stockpile has declined only about 10% since Nixon's action of a decade ago, many of the arsenal's delivery systems are aging and deteriorating. Next year's proposed defense budget earmarks only $2 million for researching a chemical warhead for a multiple rocket launcher and $4.2 million for maintaining the current U.S. stock of war chemicals. Among them are 888 Weteye gravity bombs containing a nerve agent; last week the Pentagon announced that it will continue storing the weapons at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver despite protests from residents of the area who fear potentially lethal leaks. The Army has been seeking funds for a $170 million plant to manufacture artillery shells containing two chemicals that are harmless when separate but become hazardous when mixed in a shell or bomb after it is fired or released. This so-called binary method would make it safe to store the chemicals even near population centers. So far, the White House has vetoed the Army request for the plant.
But with Moscow's C.W. threat mounting, the Administration will probably have to start doing more. Advises Edinburgh's Erickson: "Not only must the West develop an offensive capability," but the Kremlin must be convinced that the West "knows how to use these weapons and is well prepared operationally to fire them."