Pine Bluff Arsenal

The Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) is a US Army installation located in Jefferson County, Arkansas, just northwest of the city of Pine Bluff. PBA is one of nine Army installations in the United States that stored chemical weapons. PBA supplies specialized production, storage, maintenance and distribution of readiness products, and delivers technical services to the Armed Forces and Homeland Security. PBA also designs, manufactures and refurbishes smoke, riot control, and incendiary munitions, as well as chemical/biological defense operations items. It serves as a technology center for illuminating and infrared munitions and is also the only place in the Northern Hemisphere where white phosphorus munitions are filled. Its Homeland Security mission includes first-responder equipment training and surveillance of prepositioned equipment.

Capabilities of the center include: chemical defense and test equipment; individual and collective chemical protection and decontamination systems; chemical material surveillance program; machining, fabrication and assembly; specialty ammunition production; less than lethal ammunition production; and quality assurance and joint logistics services.

PBA was established in November 1941 for the manufacture of incendiary grenades and bombs. It was originally named the Chemical Warfare Arsenal but was renamed four months later. The mission expanded to include production and storage of pyrotechnic, riot control, and chemical-filled munitions. At the height of World War II, the plant expanded from making magnesium and thermite incendiary munitions to a chemical warfare manufacturing facility as well, producing lethal gases and chemical compounds installed in artillery shells and specifically designed bombs.

In an incident after World War II, several captured German rockets containing mustard agents were accidentally launched into the surrounding countryside.

Biological weapons operations were conducted at PBA from 1953 to 1969; but operations ceased when President Nixon banned biological weapons after public outcry over Agent Orange. Between 1954 and 1967, at least seven different biological agents were produced at the facility. All biological agents were destroyed between 1971 and 1973.

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