When will the GMD national missile defense system finally be tested against ICBMs?   The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says 2015, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the first test against ICBMs is now scheduled for 2020.  In either case, it will be more than a decade after the system became operational.

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Fourteen claims about GMD Effectiveness (The 13th one is the most accurate):

(1) April 13, 2011: “The posture we have today is one that has us well-protected against the initial ICBMs that might be deployed by states like North Korea and Iran with — that are few in number, relatively slow and lack sophisticated countermeasures.”[1]  Bradley Roberts, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy.

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In May 2008, MDA cancelled the planned GMD test FTG-04, which would have been the third intercept test of an operational GBI interceptor.  MDA told GAO that the interceptor telemetry problem that led to this cancellation was discovered in February 2008, but MDA knew about telemetry problems with the interceptor by at least December 2006.  Could the telemetry problem have played a role in the classification of the earlier intercept FTG-02 as a “successful intercept?”

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What happened with FTG-02?  And what does “successful intercept” mean?

The Missile Defense Agency has long claimed that the first intercept test using the operational version of the Ground-Based Interceptor of its GMD national missile defense system resulted in a “successful intercept.”  But the Pentagon’s own test and evaluation office recently revealed that the interceptor actually failed to kill its target. 

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Participation by Radar Sensors in GMD  Intercept Tests Using Operationally-Configured Interceptors

            –PAVE PAWS radars in AK and MA are not yet part of GMD system

            –BMEWS radars in Greenland and Britain on wrong side of planet for these tests.

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What’s the Difference between a CE-I and CE-II EKV?

There are two variants of the Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) currently deployed.

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March 28, 2012

Ground-Based Midcourse (GMD) Interceptors and Silos

The GMD’s 30 deployed Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) are emplaced in three silo fields at Fort Greely in central Alaska and four silos at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. There is also at least one silo reserved for testing at Vandenberg.  Currently, 26 interceptors are deployed at Fort Greely and 4 at Vandenberg.  However, no more than 20 of these are apparently currently considered to be operational.

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