Ballistic Missile Defense Midcourse Defense Segment

Abstract

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program is the element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) that provides combatant commanders with a continuously available (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year) capability to defend the Homeland against limited Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) attacks. The GMD capability consists of Ground Based Interceptors (GBI), GMD Fire Control system (GFC), GMD Communications Network (GCN), In-Flight Interceptor Communications System Data Terminals (IDT) and all of the ground Launch Support Systems (LSS) (silos, silo interface vaults (SIVs), environmental control systems, command launch equipment (CLE), firing circuits and safety systems). The 30 operationally deployed GBIs located at Fort Greely, Alaska (26 GBIs) and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California (4 GBIs) each deliver a single Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to defeat threat warheads in space during the midcourse phase of the ballistic trajectory. The GMD Fire Control System consists of fire control nodes in Fort Greely, Alaska and Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center (MDIOC) Colorado Springs, Colorado. IDTs are currently located in Fort Greely, Alaska, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Eareckson Air Station, Alaska, and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to deliver an additional IDT to Fort Drum, New York. The GMD capability leverages integration of Ballistic Missile Defense System sensors in Japan, Alaska, California, United Kingdom, and Greenland. Development objectives for GMD include: testing and validating the performance of the Capability Enhancement I and II (CE-I and CE-II) GBIs, development and testing of capability upgrades, manufacturing additional GBIs in support of operational requirements, flight testing, upgrading fielded GBIs, and conducting comprehensive component ground testing that will improve GBI reliability and minimize the number of GBIs required to destroy each ICBM threat. This Program Element includes support for the Discrimination Improvements for Homeland Defense (DIHD) effort. The goal of this effort is to develop and field an integrated set of Element capabilities to improve BMDS reliability, lethality, and discrimination. The end result will be a deployed future BMDS architecture more capable of discriminating and destroying a reentry vehicle with a high degree of confidence that will improve Warfighter shot doctrine and preserve inventory. This effort will encompass a DIHD Near-Term capability fielding and a DIHD Mid-Term capability fielding. Cyber Operations sustains Missile Defense Agency (MDA) DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Program (DIACAP) and Controls Validation Testing (CVT) activities, analysis of validation results, risk assessments and reviews of Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms) for MDA Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) mission systems. The ICBM threat that endangers the United States is projected to make significant progress over the next decade in quantity of threats, in rapid launch timeline with no warning, and in complexity with the use of countermeasures. To counter this evolving threat, MDA intends to upgrade several key components of the BMDS and GMD (i.e., Long Range Discriminating Radar (LRDR) and Discrimination Improvements for Homeland Defense (DIHD)). Additionally, MDA is developing a GMD redesigned Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) that will address the following three areas: design to the evolving threat for increased performance; improve reliability, availability, maintainability, testability, and producibility; and increase in-flight communications to improve usage of off-board sensors information and situational awareness to combatant commanders for enabling new tactics such as shoot-assess-shoot. MD40 Program-Wide Support (PWS) consists of essential non-headquarters management costs in support of the MDA functions and activities across the entire Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2015
Source ID
0603882C_4_0400_PB_2015
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2014 Congressional add of $20.000 million for CONUS Interceptor Site and Congressional transfer of $142.856 million from RDT&E to O&M, Defense-Wide. FY 2015 realignment of $146.218 million to O&M Defense Wide for MDA Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) sustainment operations. Realignment of $57.414 million for Department of Defense priorities. There were also increases of $62.400 million for Discrimination Improvement Homeland Defense and $99.500 million for Improvement of Homeland Defense Interceptors.
Service Agency Name
Missile Defense Agency

Entities

Organizations

  • Missile Defense Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Attitude Control Systems
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Configuration Management
  • Control Systems
  • Defense Systems
  • Fire Control Systems
  • Ground Based
  • Ground Control Stations
  • Homeland Defense
  • Inertial Measurement Units
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • Kill Vehicles
  • Manufacturing
  • Reconnaissance Satellites
  • Supply Chain
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Cyber - Quantum
  • Space

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