APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
research goal is to develop lightweight, weather-resistant materials (paint, coatings, nets) with good anti-infrared, anti-radar, and anti-ultraviolet characteristics. Little research is done on engineer construction equipment. The East Germans have attained a leading position among East European Communist countries in the development of military electrical equipment and are doing good work on direct energy conversion units.
Quartermaster equipment research and development have included work on military clothing, including helmets; POL-handling equipment, and primarily collapsible containers; and packaging and containers. East Germany is not engaged in research and development of materials-handling equipment specifically for military use, but the potential exists to develop and produce equipment that would satisfy army requirements.
2. Biological and chemical warfare (C)
There is no known offensive biological warfare (BW) or munition research and development in East Germany. Various microbiological research institutes and pharmaceutical production facilities give the country the technical competence to make biological warfare agents. BW programs, however, are believed to be directed and restricted by the U.S.S.R., and outputs of agents are limited to those types and quantities used in research. Research applicable to defensive BW is conducted at various military and medical microbiological research institutes and laboratories.
Significant research is being conducted in areas pertinent to BW agent detection and identification. Research and testing applicable to defensive BW is conducted on disinfectants, insecticides, transfusing bacteriophages, aerobiology, bioengineering, microbial filtration, and bacterial and viral culture media. East German scientists have acquired considerable skill in preparing microorganisms on a large scale while pursuing research on methods to control medical and public health problems of humans and animals. Equipment and advanced techniques for culturing, concentrating, and stabilizing microbiologic agents are available, and large drying facilities are capable of processing significant amounts of agent materials. Scientists are actively using the drying technique for the production of vaccines and sera for cholera, poliomyelitis, ECHO (Enteric Cytopathogenic Human Orphan) viruses, psittacosis, plague, salmonellosis, typhoid, tetanus, influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, tularemia, toxoplasmosis, smallpox, erysipelas, and ornithosis, which represent a broad spectrum of pathogens, including several candidate BW agents.
The Military Medical Section of the Ernst Moritz Arndt University, on the island of Reims, is the only military institute in East Germany conducting research and development in BW. It is administratively under the Ministry for Education, but its research program is directed by the Ministry for National Defense. The section has a number of institutes under its direction, including the Institute for Biological Protection, which has been concerned with fungal research aerosol studies, experiments with BW materials involving animals, and tests of protective materials. BW-related research is conducted under two institutes of the AW: The Institute of Microbiology and Experimental Therapy, Jena, and the Institute of Comparative Biology, East Berlin. The former is well equipped and the most outstanding microbiological installation in the country. Its work in molecular biology is of high quality. The latter facility has conducted research on the identification of disease agents with the use of fluorescent antibody technique. The Institute of Epidemiology, East Berlin, and the Veterinary Vaccine Research Institute, Dessau, both under the Ministry for Health, produce sera and vaccine. The Friedrich Loeffler Institute, on the island of Reims, subordinate to both the ministry responsible for agriculture and the Academy of Agricultural Science, has excellent facilities for research, development, and production of antianimal agents. All BW research is done in collaboration with colleagues from other Warsaw Pact countries, especially the U.S.S.R. and Hungary, by means of visits and exchanges of information and technology. The quality and quantity of the research effort are impressive.
Research in chemical warfare (CW) covers a broad range of subjects related to both offensive and defensive aspects of CW. Offensive research includes the synthesizing and testing of organophosphorus nerve agents, including V-type agents. New lethal agents apparently are not under development, although scientists appear to be searching for methods to improve the persistence and effectiveness of the older nerve agents. Research on psychochemicals is of high quality, strengthening the potential for developing incapacitating agents. A strong interest in evidence in hallucinogenic agents, and numerous studies have been done on ergot alkaloids, the raw material for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and on glycolic acid derivatives.
Scientists appear to be conducting a significant amount of research and development oriented toward
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
