History of weapons of mass destruction in Poland
The history of weapons of mass destruction in Poland includes the ABC weapons development programs during the Cold War in the People's Republic of Poland .
Nuclear weapons
Around 1960, missile troops were also set up in the Polish People's Army . These were in possession of tactical-offensive missile complexes of the Soviet series R-11 (missile complex 9K51) and 3R10 (missile complex "Luna"). In view of their low accuracy, these were intended exclusively for use in conjunction with the 3N14 nuclear warhead. By 1968, four rocket artillery brigades with operational-tactical missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers and 14 battalions with missiles with a range of up to 65 kilometers, which were assigned to the individual tank divisions and motorized divisions as divisional artillery, were set up.
The first military maneuver took place on February 26, 1965 under the leadership of the Chief of Staff of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact, Army General Pawel Batow , in which the relocation of nuclear warheads from the Soviet Union to western Poland was carried out. The exercise was seen as a failure, as the missiles would have been an easy target for the enemy if the missiles were transported until they were ready for use and it took a long time to get the warheads to Poland. Thereafter, the "Operation Wisła (Vistula)" began, the secret planning for the storage of nuclear warheads on Polish territory. On February 25, 1967, the Soviet Defense Minister Andrei Gretschko and his Polish counterpart Marian Spychalski agreed in a secret contract in Moscow to build three ammunition dumps for Soviet nuclear warheads at Białogard , Wałcz and Wędrzyn . Poland took over the construction of the objects and their financing and in January 1970, in addition to the garrisons of the Northern Group of the Troops of the Soviet Army (NGT), the three bunker complexes were handed over, which were then under the protection and control of Soviet special forces: Object 3001 near Templewo , Object 3002 near Brzeźnica-Kolonia and object 3003 near Podborsko . Around 178 nuclear warheads were stored in the mid-1980s (including 14 with an explosive force of 500 kt, 35 with an explosive force of 200 kt and 83 warheads with an explosive force of 10 kt and 36 aerial bombs).
In 1991 Poland announced the disarmament of its nuclear weapons-compatible delivery systems. This measure related to 60 FROG-7 and 32 Scud-B complexes. However, the reservation was made to keep 40 Frog-7 complexes for self-defense. However, these and four other SS-21 complexes have since been decommissioned.
Chemical weapons
Chemical weapons development in Poland began before World War II . Before the outbreak of war, the country had produced and stored large quantities of mustard gas ( mustard ), but its use was never approved during the fighting. After the war, the stocks of this warfare agent were further increased. According to current estimates, the remains from these former stocks amount to a few hundred to a thousand tons. During the Cold War Poland also produced and stored chemical warfare agents such as lewisite , VX , sarin , soman , tabun , phosgene , CS gas , SNG , BZ gas , botulin , STX , enterotoxin and nitrogen mustard.
Biological weapons
The extent of Polish bioweapons production is largely unclear, although there has been evidence that the military and state laboratories have carried out research into the development of a wide variety of pathogens suitable for bioweapons. The military research concentrated here v. a. for encephalitis , influenza viruses , yellow fever , anthrax , brucellosis , cholera , typhus , bacterial dysentery , plague and smallpox viruses in cooperation with laboratories in the Soviet Union.
literature
- Tomasz Szulc, Krzysztof Nicpoń: Magazyny broni jądrowej na terytorium Polski. Poligon publishing house. 2007, No. 3, ISSN 1895-3344
- Ethan B. Kapstein, Michael Mastanduno: Unipolar Politics: Realism and State Strategies After the Cold War . Columbia University Press 1999, ISBN 0231113080 .
- E. Geissler, JE v. C. Moon (Ed.): Biological and Toxin Weapons: Research, Development and Use from the Middle Ages to 1945 . University Press, Oxford.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tomasz Szulc, Krzysztof Nicpoń: Magazyny broni jądrowej na terytorium Polski. Poligon publishing house. 2007, No. 3, pp. 62-77, ISSN 1895-3344
- ↑ http://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/polityka/artykuly/198972,polska-miala-arsenal-broni-nuklearnej.html
- ↑ Ethan B. Kapstein, Michael Mastanduno: Unipolar Politics: Realism and State Strategies After the Cold War. Columbia University Press 1999, p. 403, ISBN 0231113080
- ^ JW Mierzejewski, JE van Courtland Moon: Poland and biological weapons. 1999, pp. 63-69