Protecting our airways: missile defense program ready for attacks.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: MILITARY

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

After the United States announced that it would withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union in 2001--the first time in recent history that the U.S. has withdrawn from a major international arms treaty--Fort Greely was selected as a site for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. And in the summer of 2002, the U.S. government began installing the missile defense system with plans to deploy a total of 25 to 30 anti-ballistic missiles by 2010, each launched as a test intercept to destroy a missile intended for the U.S.

As America's only defense against the threat of long-range ballistic missiles, GMD detects and tracks missile launches early in the boost phase, discriminates the target from countermeasures during the mid-course flight, and with pinpoint precision, intercepts and destroys the target through force of collision. Since initially deployed in 2004, the project team has ensured that GMD is maintained for readiness while also continuing to develop the Ballistic Missile Defense System and supporting missile defense operations. To date, GMD has had a total of seven successful intercept tests, including missile shoot downs with operationally configured interceptors in 2006 and 2007.

ALL IS WELL

The GMD element of the overall U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System consists of ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, along with land-, sea- and space-based sensors, and a sophisticated command-and-control system. It is designed to intercept and destroy hostile long-range ballistic missiles during their midcourse phase of flight. Meeting the goals established by the president in 2002, the GMD team accelerated testing to deliver operational capability in 2.5 years.

"This system is comparable in scale and complexity to the Apollo human spaceflight program, and provides our homeland with its only line of defense against a growing, long-range ballistic missile threat," says Greg Hyslop, Boeing vice president and program director for the GMD. "The system collects and combines target data from sensors separated by thousands of miles, then provides that data to an interceptor to enable it to collide with and destroy a target flying thousands of miles per hour through the vast darkness of space. It's like hitting a bullet with another bullet on steroids. And we've shown repeatedly in realistic flight tests that this system works extremely well."

THE TRUE TEST

Although no other...