DETAILED JUSTIFICATION OF PROJECT Protective equipment laboratory (includes $500 for construction of administrative telephone system), $400,000 This project proposes the construction of a one-story, fireproof building with approximately 15,000 square feet of floor space and all pertinent laboratory facilities. Space occupied by the canister testing and filter paper development activities will be air-conditioned. Development work on materials and equipment such as gas masks, gas mask canisters, filter paper, and protective clothing requires adequate working space and facilities for the construction of numerous prototype models. Present laboratory facilities for this work are overcrowded and are not suited for accelerated programs or developments in case of emergency such as now exists. Approximately 3,700 square feet of floor space should be provided for expanding work on gas masks to include completion of the leakproof mask, the development of means for ventilation (if necessary) and perfecting speech transmission devices and auxiliary equipment. Approximately 3,000 square feet should be provided to house equipment and facilities for preparing limited yardages of experimental protective fabrics and conducting extensive tests on these fabrics, and for designing and making up experimental protective garments. Approximately 2,200 square feet of air-conditioned space should be provided for expanding work in canister testing and for filter paper development and testing. Adequate paper-making and paper-testing equipment for making experimental runs will be included. This project has been submitted to all interested agencies of the Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and has been concurred in and approved in accordance with the directives and policies of the Research and Development Board. High pressure laboratory (364 square feet). administrative telephone system), $25,000 (Includes $500 for construction of This project proposes the construction of a one-story structural steel reinforced concrete building, approximately 14 feet by 26 feet, for testing certain chemical reactions at high temperatures and at pressures up to approximately 10,000 pounds per square inch. In high pressure reactions, such as required in this type of test, particularly with flammables, compressed gases and liquids at high temperatures, unpredictable dangerous accidents may occur. In view of this fact a structural steel reinforced concrete structure is essential. The necessary equipment for this phase of the research is in possession of the Technical Command at this installation. There is no existing building of this type available. The construction of a new high pressure laboratory is essential to the prosecution of this part of the research program, acceleration of which is required in view of the present emergency. This project has been submitted to all interested agencies of the Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force and has been concurred in and approved in accordance with the directives and policies of the Research and Development Board. Explosion test chamber (1,600 square feet) (32,000 cubic feet) (includes $500 for construction of administrative telephone system), $400,000 This project proposes the construction of a reinforced concrete test chamber approximately 40 by 40 by 20 feet and of such construction that munitions up to and including the 4.2-inch chemical mortar shell may be statically fired and their contents sampled. Provisions will be made for controlling temperatures and humidity. Necessary refrigeration equipment will be housed in a Quonsettype structure to be constructed in safe proximity to the test chamber which will be located in the vicinity of Building 378. Due to the emphasis now placed on arctic and tropical warfare, there is a very urgent need to determine the military characteristics of many Chemical Corps munitions, such as flame throwers, incendiary materials, incendiary bombs, agents such as gases, aerosols, etc., and engine-driven equipment. Field tests at arctic and tropical stations have been expensive and unsatisfactory, particularly for items in the development stage. More accurate evaluation will be possible with the projected facility and large savings in time and funds will be effected. The need for this test structure is now urgent due to the present emergency and lack of time for field testing procedure. This project has been submitted to all interested agencies of the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and has been concurred in and approved in accordance with the directives and policies of the Research and Development Board. Facilities for assembly of clusters, fire bombs (10,000 square feet) (includes $500 for construction of administrative telephone system), $301,000 This project proposes the construction of one or more permanent-type buildings having a combined floor space of 10,000 square feet, a maximum height of about 30 feet, and equipped to handle loads up to 5,000 pounds. The facility will be used by the Air Force Munitions Branch for assembly of Air Force munitions which are urgently required to meet the present emergency. All of the assembly work is being performed in one small building at the present time. The hoist capacity, safety features and floor space of this existing structure are entirely inadequate for handling munitions of the types now in use or under development. The size and weight of guided missiles and clusters have been constantly increasing, the smallest guided missile now in use weighing 11⁄2 tons. In view of the tremendous development program now underway, and the high priority assigned to the program, it is essential that adequate buildings be erected and equipped for this work. Test chamber for aerosols (Includes $500 for construction of administrative telephone system), $75,000. This project proposes the construction of a hollow tile addition to building No. 339, consisting of three separate rooms. One room 32 by 44 by 16 feet will be provided with temperature and humidity controls; another, 32 by 60 by 10 feet, to be provided with separate ventilation circuits; the third, 20 by 30 by 12 feet, to be provided with an exhaust stack of 18-inch diameter. The structure with the pertinent facilities will be used for testing artificially produced aerosols and mechanical means of dispersing them. Research in the field of toxic aerosols is in an early experimental stage and existing facilities are entirely inadequate. This program is expanding and it is essential that means be provided for testing dispersion methods particularly in view of the acceleration in related development programs. This project has been submitted to all interested agencies of the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and has been concurred in and approved in accordance with the directives and policies of the Research and Development Board. Collective protective and air filter labaratory (Includes $500 for construction of administrative telephone system), $350,000. This project proposes the construction of a permanent type building 50 by 145 feet, with two stories and basement. It will contain settling chambers, laboratories, office and storage space, will provide for controlled temperature and humidity, and will be used for research into aerosol and colloidal behavior. Greatly expanded research in the use of toxic aerosols is and will continue to be greater than can be provided for by existing facilities. The field of aerosol behavior under extremes of temperature and climatic conditions must be explored in connection with agents. This field is in its early experimental stages and progress is presently hampered by the lack of suitable facilities. This project is urgently required in view of the accelerated toxic agents development program. This project has been submitted to all interested agencies of the Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force for concurrence in accordance with the directives and policies of the Research and Development Board. General BARRIGER. This covers a series of projects at the Army Chemical Center, Maryland, all a part of the research and development program. All of these projects have been coordinated with all services and screened and passed by the Research and Development Board. Mr. SHEPPARD. This project is composed of several items, the first of which is protective equipment laboratory, $400,000; the second, high pressure laboratory, $25,000; explosion test chamber, $400,000; facilities for assembly of clusters, fire bombs, $301,000; test chamber for aerosols, $75,000 and collective protective and air filter laboratory, $350,000. Are those particular projects that are to be constructed to be of a permanent character? General BARRIGER. Yes, sir. PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTION WORK Mr. SHEPPARD. Are they in any manner for the purpose of relieving temporary structures that might be upon the base at this time? General BARRIGER. I think I would rather that you got the details from the representative of the Research and Development people, who are more familiar with the project than I, if that is agreeable. Mr. SHEPPARD. If the gentleman from that activity will give an answer to my question at this point, please? Major SHEPPARD. The present work for which we contemplate the use of these facilities is now being undertaken both in permanent and in temporary buildings. The permanent buildings in which some of this work is being done are buildings badly needed under our expanded program for chemical laboratory research. Some of the other work is being done in temporary buildings, all of a very unsatisfactory and overcrowded type. If there is any particular item you would like to have discussed in detail, I can go into that. For example, you might like to take the first item, protective equipment laboratory. Most of our work in this field is being done in three very small laboratories, each one of which is not quite as large as the room in which we are now sitting. These laboratories are located in a permanent building. However, they are exceedingly overcrowded; they are inadequate to do the job that we must do and that is the reason we are requesting this additional facility. Mr. SHEPPARD. What type of matériel or equipment would come under the terminology of protective equipment? Major SHEPPARD. The particular type of protective equipment would be the gas masks and protective clothing, that is, individual protective equipment. Mr. SHEPPARD. You would also include wardrobes for certain climatic conditions, things of that kind? Major SHEPPARD. That is right. We incorporate in this plan a constant humidity room, for example, for testing filter papers. The present constant humidity room is an extremely small closet and is not even adequate to house all the paper testing equipment we need. Moreover, in this facility we are asking for an air-conditioned room in addition to this constant humdity room for testing papers of various kinds, and for handling filter papers. The testing work on this filter paper and the research around this filter paper incorporates the necessity of keeping away all types of dust even extremely fine particles of dust, because the dust complicates your results. Mr. SHEPPARD. Does this duplicate, in any way, any activities of the Bureau of Standards, so far as you know? Major SHEPPARD. What is that? Mr. SHEPPARD. Does the Bureau of Standards, and other governmental agencies, in any manner overlap what you are doing here? Major SHEPPARD. No, sir; the Bureau of Standards is not working with the particular types of paper which we have. Mr. SHEPPARD. In other words, there is no duplication in this particular field, to your knowledge? Major SHEPPARD. No, sir. EXPLOSION TEST CHAMBER Mr. SHEPPARD. What is the reason for including the item of $400,000 for explosion test chamber? we Major SHEPPARD. That explosion test chamber is required for testing munitions in an explosion-proof room. As you know, cannot, in the location where we are now situated, test highly toxic agents in the open. We can test munitions which are filled with certain things, but we cannot test munitions which are filled with a toxic agent. So this explosion test chamber is for the purpose of conducting small-scale tests on actual munitions that are loaded with toxics. These chambers will be equipped with facilities that can be easily cleaned and decontaminated and, of course, they will have all appropriate safety devices incorporated therein. We believe, by the use of such a test chamber that we will get a great deal of results which ordinarily would take extensive and expensive field tests to do. COLLECTIVE, PROTECTIVE, AND AIR FILTER LABORATORY Mr. SHEPPARD. Take the item "Collective, protective, and air filter laboratory," $350,000. Tell us about that. Major SHEPPARD. Collective protection, as you can realize, is quite a large problem. We have the requirement, co-jointly with the Corps of Engineers, for protecting all types of closed installations, such as a dugout or a chamber in which personnel can work without danger of being affected by contaminated air. So we have to develop this collective protective equipment. Some of it is quite small, designed to accommodate only a very small room, such as this room, for example. Other types of equipment require considerably larger spaces. We must develop, of course, special filters for the protection of these installations and this filter development, co-jointly with the collective protective equipment, is all designed for this installation. Mr. SHEPPARD. This entire program comes in the chemical category, is that right? Major SHEPPARD. Yes, sir. ADMINISTRATIVE TELEPHONE SYSTEM Mr. TABER. I see that each one of these projects has a $500 item for the construction of an administrative telephone system. It looks funny to have items like that put in in that way. One would think, if we had a telephone system, it would be for the whole project instead of a scatter-fire job like this, where you would have to have separate specifications and separate contracts, and all that sort of thing. wonder why you proceed in that way. I Colonel GALLOWAY. That is not the case. The $500 is turned over to the Signal Corps for the installation of the telephone. It is not made the subject of a separate contract. This is the estimate of how much it would cost them, in a round figure, for the installation of that telephone. We transfer that fund and they do all the installation, as one proposition. Mr. TABER. Are you going to accomplish something that you are not now accomplishing with this particular item, incorporating these half-dozen projects? Major SHEPPARD. Yes, sir; in consideration of our expanded program as well as more efficiently doing the work we contemplate doing at the present time, we need them very badly. Our present facilities are considerably overcrowded and inadequate. Mr. TABER. Who does the construction on this job? DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, UTAH Mr. SHEPPARD. We will pick up the next item, reflected on page 54, for the Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, $3,406,159. The prepared justifications will be inserted at this point. (The justifications are as follows:) Dugway Proving Ground, Utah Dugway Proving Establishment (includes $42,000 for construction of administrative telephone systems), $3,406,159 The construction of this installation includes all necessary technical and laboratory facilities, post and administrative facilities, housing and mess facilities, utilities and roads, and community and recreational facilities necessary to permit the Chemical Corps to carry out its assigned mission for testing and evaluation of items developed by the Chemical Corps for defense in chemical, biological, and radiological warfare. Below are listed the various projects authorized by Public Law 564, Eighty-first Congress, and planned for construction at this installation in the immediate future. Laboratories and operations buildings. Warehouses and utilities buildings. Airstrip and operations building BOQ, barracks and civilian dormitory- Total $1,077, 021 373, 500 338, 370 1, 157, 000 460, 268 3, 406, 159 The testing and evaluation of items developed by the Chemical Corps requires a large isolated proving ground established within the continental United States. As a result of an extensive survey made by a group representing interested agencies of the Government, the reactivation of Dugway Proving Ground was recommended. A similar survey made by a group of unbiased civilian specaliists also resulted in a recommendation that this installation be reactivated. In view of these recommendations and obvious economy of effort and increased efficiency of operations which would result from combining testing responsibilities at a single site, Dugway Proving Ground was selected as the optimum site for a permanent proving ground. In order to attain the objectives of the Chemical Corps for research and development responsibility, testing and operational evaluation of all standard and development type chemical items are required. Many of these will be on a largescale basis and will require the use of new and conventional type airplanes operating at varied altitudes and speeds. However, the realization of research and development objectives must in many cases, be held in abeyance due to the lack of adequate large-scale test facilities. In addition, many of the chemical items to be tested require isolation from inhabitated areas and large separate test areas for some of the items to be tested because of their toxic nature. Individual and collective protective equipment has been developed and is now ready for field tests. New means of dissemination, protection, and decontamination are in advanced stages of development and require field tests. It is possible that the present tactical and strategic concepts in the fields of chemical, biological, and related fields of classified warfare will be radically revised as a result of tests |