The BIGEYE was a 500-pound (230 kg) class glide bomb with a radar altimeter fuze intended to disperse the binary generated nerve agent VX, made in flight from the non-lethal chemical components "QL" and sulfur only after aircraft release.
BIGEYE was a genuine tri-service program led by the U.S. Navy with significant U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force participation.
As the stockpile of U.S. unitary (live agent) chemical weapons began to show troubling leakage, the Department of Defense (DoD) became acutely aware of the safety hazard to military personnel and public backlash this could generate.
Initially, the United States was in Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union, and then-President Jimmy Carter rejected U.S. Army requests for authorization of the binary chemical weapons program.
This action left the decision on a retaliatory binary chemical weapons option to the Ronald Reagan administration.
[1] Initial production contracts for the BIGEYE were awarded in June, 1988, to The Marquardt Company of Van Nuys, CA, the project's prime contractor for most of the program.
[4] Following a test suspension and subsequent significant design improvements, vastly better weapons function and reliability results were achieved.
Problems the Navy encountered with the BIGEYE included excessive pressure build-up, questions about the lethality of the chemical mixture resulting from variable mix times, and overall reliability concerns.