In the 20 years of the Soviet programme, with all the caveats that we don’t fully know what the programme was, but from the best reading of what we know from the civil side of that programme, they really didn’t get that far in creating agents that actually meet all of those criteria [necessary for usefulness in biological warfare]. They got somewhere, but they didn’t get to the stage where they had a weapon that changed their overall battlefield capabilities; that would change the outcome of a war, or even a battle, over the existing weapon systems available to them.
Presumably the most dangerous aspects would also have been kept the most secret, so I’m not really sure how much we should update from this.
Presumably the most dangerous aspects would also have been kept the most secret, so I’m not really sure how much we should update from this.