Robots will complete a decades-long demolition process.

At least officially, every nation in the world will be out of the chemical weapons industry. According to the US Army, the final inventory of chemical weapons in existence should be destroyed as soon as tomorrow. After the Chemical Weapons Convention went into effect in 1997, the US and the majority of other countries agreed to completely eliminate their arsenals within ten years. However, due to the size of the US collection (many of the warheads are several decades old) and the difficulty of safe disposal, the US has been tardy in meeting this deadline.

The present approach uses robots to pierce, drain, and wash the chemical-filled artillery rounds and rockets before baking them to make them harmless. The gas is drained, diluted in hot water, and either neutralized with bacteria (for mustard gas) or caustic soda (for nerve agents) depending on the type of gas. After then, the liquid that is left is burned. Prior to beginning the destruction process, teams employ X-rays to check for leaks. They also remotely supervise robots to reduce contact with hazardous materials.

Initially, the Army planned to destroy the weapons by sinking them on ships as it had done covertly in the past, but it encountered opposition from the public because to the probable environmental impact. However, the military eventually destroyed a sizable portion of the stockpile in this way. In the 1980s, proposals to incinerate chemical agents also encountered opposition.

The US last used chemical weapons during World War I, but continued to produce them as a deterrent for decades. When mysterious sheep deaths in 1968 revealed that the Army was keeping chemical weapons on hand across the US and even conducting open-air tests on them, interest in the program first peaked.

Only confirmed stocks will be destroyed by this action. Despite maintaining that its last chemical weapon was destroyed in 2017, Russia has been charged with manufacturing nerve gas covertly. Throughout a large portion of the 2010s, both ISIS extremists and pro-government Syrian forces employed these weapons. This won't stop invading nations and terrorist organizations from employing the chemicals.

But even so, this is a significant achievement. It offers a further step toward lowering the lethality of war while also eliminating an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. Drones lessen vulnerability for their operators (but not for the targets), and specialists such as AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton see a future in which robots engage in combat with one another. Although ideally all combat would be put to an end, initiatives like these at least help to cut down on casualties.