“The Pentagon is preparing for a mission to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile on board a U.S. ship, using a system that has not yet been tested at sea,” Fox News reports.

“The operation would be part of an agreement struck in September by Syria, the U.S. and Russia to eliminate Syria’s deadly chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014. The U.S. is still waiting on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international group leading the destruction efforts, to formally approve the U.S. mission.”

“U.S. defense officials who briefed reporters at the Pentagon Thursday morning say the Motor Vessel Cape Ray, a ship owned by the Department of Transportation, is currently being outfitted in Norfolk, Va., with a Field Deployable Hydrolysis System, designed to dilute the chemical weapons stockpile.”