Just right next to the site of Skripal’s poisoning, the UK Marines conducted “Toxic Dagger” drill, where the issues of combating chemical and biological contamination as well as means of assistance to persons exposed to chemical poisoning were working out.
The drill involved government and industry scientists and more than 300 military personnel.
Specialists in CBRN from Dstl and AWE created realistic exercise scenarios based on the latest threat information. Completing the training and exercising against these scenarios provides a challenging programme for the Royal Marines to demonstrate their proficiency in the methods to detect, assess and mitigate a CBRN threat.
It was assumed that the unknown chemical substance (presumably sarin) can be transported to Britain in ampoules and it will be difficult to identify it, since the substance is colorless and has no odor.
After the poisoning of Skripal, the poisoning conclusion was almost instantly rendered by the same center, which helps conduct exercises to combat chemical contamination in Britain and prepares troops for action against chemical laboratories in other countries.
The exercises continued even after Skripal was poisoned. In the press they were presented as the work of defensive measures after the insidious attack of Russia. Although the exercises themselves began two weeks before the poisoning of Skripal and were conducted with such a scenario for at least 2 years in a row.
