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THE US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other.

Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath, US government papers say.

The US defence department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.

The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing £4 million, but they were never pursued.

The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Ohio sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and ‘bad guy’-identifying chemicals".

The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.

The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale.

Scientists also reportedly considered a "sting me/attack me" chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops. A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.

Another idea was to develop a chemical causing "severe and lasting halitosis", so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.

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