Ballistic Missile Defense Midcourse Defense Segment

Abstract

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) 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 (IFICS) Data Terminal (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). By the end of 2017, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will have 44 operationally deployed GBIs located at Fort Greely, Alaska (40 GBIs) and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California (4 GBIs). FY 2017 funding is critical to the Department's commitment to deploy 44 GBIs. Each GBI delivers a single Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to defeat threat warheads in space during the midcourse phase of the ballistic trajectory. The GFC 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 Fort Drum, New York. The GMD capability leverages integration of BMDS sensors in Alaska, California, United Kingdom, Japan, and Greenland. Development objectives for GMD include: improving homeland defensive capability against an evolving threat that is increasing both in number of missiles and complexity of threat payloads, 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. MD08 Ground Based Midcourse includes development, production, and deployment of additional GBIs, enhancements to Ground Systems hardware and software, Program Management, Systems Engineering and Integration, and improvements to Ground-based Midcourse models and simulations that improve the effectiveness, reliability and capacity of the Homeland missile defense system. This project also includes discrimination improvement efforts, which aim to develop and field an integrated set of Element capabilities to improve BMDS effectiveness and resilience against the evolving threat. The end result will be a BMDS architecture that is more capable of discriminating and destroying a re-entry vehicle with a high degree of confidence, improving Warfighter shot doctrine and preserving inventory. This effort encompasses Near-term, Mid-term, and Far-term discrimination improvements capability fielding. The discrimination improvements require a coordinated effort between Systems Engineering (PE 0603890C), Ground-based Midcourse Defense, BMD Sensors (PE 0603884C), C2BMC (PE 0603896C), Aegis BMD (PE 0603892C) and Advanced C4ISR (PE 0603179C). MC08 Cyber Operations sustains the 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. MD40 Program-Wide Support (PWS) consists of essential non-headquarters management efforts providing integrated and efficient support to MDA functions and activities across the entire BMDS.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2017
Source ID
0603882C_4_0400_PB_2017
Change Summary Explanation
The FY 2017 adjustment reflects a realignment of Department of Defense priorities.
Service Agency Name
Missile Defense Agency

Entities

Organizations

  • Missile Defense Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Facilities
  • Battle Management
  • Command And Control
  • Configuration Management
  • Control Systems
  • Defense Systems
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Fire Control Systems
  • Information Systems
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • Manufacturing
  • Product Development
  • Reliability
  • Software Development
  • Supply Chain
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Space

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