text: FM 7-100.1________________________________________________________________________________
  • Deny areas to the enemy.
  • Conduct preemptive attack.
  If nuclear weapons degrade an enemy offensive, the defender could gain the
  opportunity to switch quickly to an offensive role.
  BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
  11-49. The State closely controls information about the status of its biological
  warfare capabilities. This creates uncertainty among its regional neighbors
  and potential extraregional opponents as to what types of biological agents
  the State might possess and how it might employ them.
  11-50. Biological weapons can provide a great equalizer in the face of a nu-
  merically and/or technologically superior adversary that the OPFOR cannot
  defeat in a conventional confrontation. However, their effects on the enemy
  can be difficult to predict, and the OPFOR must also be concerned about the
  possibility that the effects could spread to friendly forces.
  WEAPONS AND AGENTS
  11-51. Biological weapons consist of pathogenic microbes, micro-organism
  toxins, and bioregulating compounds. Depending on the specific type, these
  weapons can incapacitate or kill people or animals and destroy plants, food
  supplies, or materiel. The type of target being attacked determines the choice
  of agent and dissemination system.
  11-52. Biological weapons are extremely potent and provide wide-area
  coverage. Some biological agents are extremely persistent, retaining their
  capabilities to infect for days, weeks, or longer. Biological weapons can take
  some time (days, weeks, or monthsdepending on the agent) to achieve their
  full effect. To allow these agents sufficient time to take effect, the OPFOR may
  use clandestine means, such as SPF or civilian sympathizers, to deliver
  biological agents in advance of a planned attack or even before the war begins.
  DELIVERY MEANS
  11-53. It is possible to disseminate biological agents in a number of ways.
  Generally, the objective is to expose enemy forces to an agent in the form of a
  suspended cloud of very fine biological agent particles. Dissemination
  through aerosols, either as droplets from liquid suspensions or by small par-
  ticles from dry powders, is by far the most efficient method.
  11-54. There are two basic types of biological munitions: point-source bom-
  blets delivered directly on targets and line-source tanks that release the
  agent upwind from the target. Within each category, there can be multiple
  shapes and configurations.
  11-55. Military systems, as well as unconventional means, can deliver biological
  agents. Potential delivery means include rockets, artillery shells, aircraft spray-
  ers, saboteurs, and infected rodents. Aside from SPF and civilian sympathizers,
  the OPFOR might use affiliated insurgent or terrorist organizations to deliver
  biological agents within the region, outside the immediate region (to divert enemy
  attention and resources), or even in the homeland of an extraregional opponent.