UK Plans Chemical Weapons Research Facility

The United Kingdom has plans to set up a chemical weapons research facility citing threats from Russia and North Korea.

News agencies reported that an announcement to this effect is likely from British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson today. It is not clear what the facility would do; create chemical weapons or develop defensive systems such as antidotes against known chemical agents including one that killed a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK last week.

The British government will reportedly invest £48 million ($66 million) in the facility at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Porton Down. 

Following the attack on Skripal, Britain tasked the DSTL in Wiltshire with analyzing the nerve agent that was used to poison the former spy. It was the same laboratory that ultimately liked the attack to Russia.

Scheduled to speak at an event hosted by Policy Exchange and Rolls Royce in Bristol, Williamson will use what he describes as a growing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat from some governments to announce that thousands of British troops held at high-readiness will be vaccinated against anthrax.

This allows British troops to be deployed to areas where the risk of this type of attack exists.