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October 7, 2008
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Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| Basing: | Land |
| In Service: | 2004 |
Details
The Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) is a multi-stage silo-launched booster rocket and kill vehicle that will track and destroy high-speed ballistic missiles in their midcourse phase, i.e. while the missiles are still outside the atmosphere and at their highest trajectory. Once operational, the GBI will be a critical part of the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which is scheduled for deployment in September 2004.
Although MDA developed many of GMD’s technologies during the 1980s and 1990s, the project officially began in 1998 with a $1.6 billion dollar initial contract to Boeing. Subcontractors include Orbital Sciences Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon. Boeing is in charge of GBI’s development, and the project is currently undergoing extensive ground and flight tests. As currently envisioned, each GBI missile will consist of two main components: a three-stage booster rocket and the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV).
MDA currently has two separate booster rockets in the works: Orbital Sciences Corporation is building the Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV), while Lockheed Martin is designing the Boost Vehicle Plus (BV-Plus). The OBV can fly at 3.7 miles per second; the BV-Plus maxes out at 3.4 miles per second. MDA believes that deploying a variety of booster rockets will strengthen the overall GMD system. According to Army Major General John W. Holly, Director of GMD, “If you can match the right weapon with the target that you are going after, . . . you are much more efficient in your engagement.”
On top of either the OBV or the BV-Plus will sit Raytheon’s Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. The EKV is designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles outside the Earth’s atmosphere, hence its “exoatmospheric” nature. Each kill vehicle costs between $20 and $25 million and will include a range of sophisticated devices: infrared sensors, an internal navigational system, antennas, thruster engines, a cryogenic cooling system, and a small computer, all designed to maximize the probability of a successful “kill.” Yet even with all its components, the entire EKV will fit comfortably on a kitchen table. It is only 55 inches long, 24 inches in diameter, and weighs 140 pounds.
Once deployed, the GBI interceptors will be located in underground silos and will be connected to a web of satellites and radars that will continuously scan the entire globe for threats. In the event that an enemy missile is detected, the GMD command center will relay its launch command, and the designated GBI missile will blast out of its silo and climb toward the target’s predicted location, receiving in-flight tracking updates from the satellites and radars along the way.
As it streaks through its three boost stages, the GBI will gain speed. Three minutes into its flight (approximately 1,400 miles from its target), the EKV will separate from the third-stage booster rocket. Dozens of cables will be blown off, and four springs will propel the small payload forward. The EKV will immediately bank sharply to either the right or the left to avoid being hit from behind by the booster rocket. From this point forward, the kill vehicle will proceed to the target on its own momentum.
As the EKV closes in, the combined velocity of the kill vehicle and the incoming missile will approach 15,000 miles per hour (four miles per second, or five times the speed of a bullet), leaving little room for last minute maneuvers. Approximately 100 seconds before impact, the EKV’s infrared sensors will switch on and begin tracking the incoming ballistic missile. To achieve complete threat neutralization, the EKV will collide with the warhead’s “sweet spot,” an area just a few centimeters wide where the missile’s payload is located. The impact from a precise hit will pulverize the warhead and destroy any nuclear, chemical, or biological agents it might be carrying.
Since 1999, MDA has conducted seven hit-to-kill tests. Five have been successful. The most recent was on October 14, 2002, when a GBI from the Reagan Test Site in the central Pacific Ocean tracked and destroyed a target vehicle launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at an altitude of 140 miles and a closing speed in excess of 15,000 miles per hour. MDA plans to perform approximately 17 more hit-to-kill intercepts over the next several years.
Due to these successes, the GBI program has received enthusiastic support from the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. MDA is currently installing six GBI missiles at Fort Greely in Alaska, and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base Over 20 interceptors are scheduled for deployment over the next two years.
Sources
“ATK Awarded $97 Million Contract to Supply Orion Rocket Motors to Orbital Sciences Corporation Rocket Motors Will Launch Orbital’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV).” PR Newswire, 18 February 2004.
Federation of American Scientists.
Maas, Peter. “Get Ready, Here Comes The Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle; Star Wars Missile Defense: The Sequel.” New York Times Magazine, 26 September 1999.
Missile Defense Agency.
Morris, Jefferson. “Lockheed Martin Developing Advanced Booster For Missile Defense.” Aerospace Daily, 8 August 2002.
Orbital Sciences Corporation.
Pae, Peter. “Kill Vehicle A Hit With Proponents Of Missile Defense.” Los Angeles Times, 28 March 2002.
Sirak, Michael C. “Year of the Missile.” Air Force Magazine, January 2004.
Raytheon Company.
Tuttle, Rich. “Aerojet Aims To Take Over THAAD, BV-Plus Motor Work.” Aerospace Daily, 12 April 2004.
U.S. Department of Defense.
Warwick, Graham. “Missile Tests Wait For New Boosters.” Flight International, 21 January 2003.
Fifth Interceptor Installed at Ft. Greely, Alaska
On September 25, the missile defense agency installed the fifth of six interceptors expected to be deployed this year at the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) site, at Fort Greely, Alaska. One more is yet to be installed at Greely, and two will be installed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, later this year.
» Missile system details for: Fort Greely, Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
Fourth Interceptor Now in Place
On Wednesday, September 22, the Missile Defense Agency put in place the fourth of six Ground-based Midcourse Defense missile interceptors scheduled to be installed this year. The other two are expected sometime in October. The third interceptor was emplaced only a few days before, on September 18.
» More stories on: Deployment, Land-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
Second Interceptor Installed at Fort Greely
The Missile Defense Agency installed the second Ground-based interceptor in an underground silo at Fort Greely this past week, according to the September 10 edition of Aerospace Daily and Defense Report. The first interceptor was “emplaced” on July 22, and the third is expected to be installed “probably within the next 10 days or so,” according to an MDA spokesman.
Update: An MDA press release reports that a total of six interceptors will be emplaced by October, as well as two more at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by the end of the year.
» MDA on second and future emplacements
» More stories on: Deployment, Land-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Fort Greely, Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
Second Interceptor in Ground by Mid-August
According to InsideDefense.com, the second of six planned interceptors for Fort Greely, Alaska could be installed by mid-August. Additional interceptors would likely be installed in October.
» More stories on: Deployment
» Missile system details for: Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
First Ground Based Interceptor Lowered Into Alaska Silo
The first Ground-Based Interceptor was today lowered into a silo at Fort Greely, Alaska, one of many which will soon form the first line of defense against long range ballistic missiles from countries such as North Korea. Five additional interceptors will be deployed in Alaska by the end of September, for a total of six. An additional ten are scheduled to be added to Fort Greely by the end of 2005, as well as an additional four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, for a total of twenty. The interceptors form a major part of the Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.
The first interceptor uses an Orbital booster, and will be armed with the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, or EKV. Although placed inside the silo, it is not yet operational.
» More stories on: Deployment, Land-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
Aegis Ships to Begin Monitoring North Korean Missiles in September
Six Aegis destroyers are being equipped to use their radars to track potential missile launches by North Korea, and will begin patrolling the Sea of Japan in September, roughly the same time that the first interceptors of the ground based missile defense system will become operational.
In the event of a missile launch, the ships’ radar would track the missile, and relay its information to a central location in Colorado, and ultimately to the missile interceptors themselves, which will be deployed in California and Alaska.
» More stories on: Deployment, Sea-Based Systems, Detection and Tracking
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD, Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
First Booster Delivered to Greely
The first booster for the Ground Based Interceptors has been delivered to Fort Greely Alaska. The missile was flown from Vandenburg Air Force Base, and will be assembled in Alaska. Still needing to be fully assembled, it will be the first missile deployed, and put on alert.
» More stories on: Policy
» Missile system details for: Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
More Missiles at Greely
Budget plans presented to Congress include a request for an additional 10 ballistic missile interceptors at Fort Greely, which would bring the total at the post to 26. Even if approved, the additional 10 interceptors would probably not be available until late in the decade. Nine interceptors should be deployed this year. Some are also scheduled to be deployed at Vandenberg. Besides these, the military also asked for an additional 10 at “a potential third site.” Fort Greely alone, however, has room for at least 40 interceptors.
» Missile system details for: Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
Miller on Successful BMD Test
John Miller of NRO discusses the ‘power politics’ of missile defense, and the recent test success of the ground based system:
“Instead of appreciation for an incredible technological achievement —- one with enormous practical benefits in a dangerous world, by the way —- there’s almost a sigh of disappointment when the Pentagon shows it can ‘hit a bullet with a bullet,’ as the generals like to say.”
» More stories on: Analysis
» Missile system details for: Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
Miller on Ground-Based System Test
Miller speculates on the likely reaction to the upcoming GBI test by missile defense detractors:
“The enemies of missile defense no doubt have prepared two separate sets of talking points for this evening’s result. If the intercept fails, they will crow about how missile defense can’t possibly be made to work. If it succeeds, they will say the test was too easy.
“In reality, tonight’s experiment is the most complicated one the Pentagon has yet conducted. Not only will the interceptor have to hit a target traveling at head-spinning speed in outer space, it will also have to distinguish its target from three balloon decoys trying to throw off its sensors. In previous tests, the interceptor has faced only a single decoy.”
» More stories on: Analysis
» Missile system details for: Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
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