Deseret Test Center

The Deseret Test Center was a U.S. Army operated command in charge of testing chemical and biological weapons during the 1960s. Deseret was headquartered at Fort Douglas, Utah.

Deseret Test Center, a former U.S. Army base, was was located at Fort Douglas, Utah.

Progress toward standardizing new biological warfare agents was limited from 1961 to 1962 by the lack of adequate extra-continental test facilities in which toxic agent munitions combinations could be fully assayed without the legal and safety limitations that were necessary in less remote test areas within the Continental United States.

In May 1962 the Joint Chiefs of Staff established the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah, a disused army base.

The U.S. Army command at Deseret was established as a result of being tasked with conducting Project 112 and Project SHAD. The Deseret project required a joint task force to undertake overseas chemical and biological testing. In response, the Joint Chiefs of Staff established the Deseret Test Center under the auspices of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. A directive from May 28, 1962 outlined Deseret Test Center's mission:

...[To] prepare and conduct extra continental tests to assess chemical and biological weapons and defense systems, both by providing support data for research and development and by establishing a basis for the operational and logistic concepts needed for the employment of these systems.

No tests were actually conducted at Deseret Test Center however, the Deseret administration facility was supported by Dugway Proving Ground about 80 miles (130 km) away. The Deseret center occupied Building 103 and 105 at Fort Douglas, where administrative and planning decisions were made. The headquarters at Fort Douglas was staffed by 200 individuals. The U.S. Army closed Deseret Test Center in 1973.

Project Deseret was developed to conduct a highly classified military research, development, and testing program which was aimed at both offensive and defensive human, animal, and plant reaction to biological, chemical, toxicological, entomological, and radiological warfare agents in various combinations of climate and terrain.

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