Neurotoxins Are A Rising Threat. Here’s How the Military Will Detect Them

If Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was, as German leaders say, poisoned with the deadly Soviet-era Novichok neurotoxin, it would once again highlight the willingness of the Kremlin to deploy such toxins in civilian and urban areas — and the urgent need for better ways to detect their use. The U.S. military will soon roll out one such tool: a spray that can alert troops and first responders to the presence of such neurotoxins.

Novichok, a Russian neurotoxin that GRU agents used against double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter...