Boeing-led industry team has installed the first of 20 additional Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) silos and silo interface vaults — adjacent underground electronics rooms that maintain the readiness and effectiveness of interceptors — in the ground at a recently completed fourth missile field at Fort Greely, Alaska.

Why it matters: The new missile field was established to accommodate more Ground-Based Interceptors and Next Generation Interceptors, giving the U.S. greater ability to defend against greater numbers of increasingly sophisticated long-range missile threats.

• GMD is the United States’ only operationally deployed missile defense system capable of defending the entire country (including Alaska and Hawaii).

Driving the news: During a recent sit-down with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, discussed the continued importance of the GMD system, as well as what’s new and what’s next between now and the future fielding of a next-generation interceptor.

• “[GMD is a] very capable system … Still the only homeland missile defense system that we have protecting the [United] States.”
• “We are in the middle of service life extension program on a number of the oldest … interceptors and continue to support that to refresh both reliability … [and] bring a little bit more capability, as well.”
• “We’re still bringing in new capabilities, such as we demonstrated in December of last year with our flight test … [that provide] minutes of additional intercept space, decision space, to [eliminate threats from] some previously un-interceptable scenarios as we go forward.”

Boeing’s role: “Our GMD Ground Systems team brings over 20 years of expertise and experience, making them uniquely qualified to design and deploy a new missile field and effectively meet the complex requirements of a critical missile defense operation,” said Rayni Sivley, project manager for Boeing’s GMD program.

• Boeing teammates from six U.S. states — Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Ohio and Utah — support the GMD program.

By Josh Roth

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