Gates Plan Would Limit GBIs at 26

Amy Butler abutler@aviationweek.com

U.S. Defense Department officials are providing more details to new guidance Secretary Robert Gates has unveiled over the Ground-based Midcourse Defense ballistic interceptor program.

Earlier plans called for 40 three-stage Orbital Boost Vehicle interceptors - also called ground-based interceptors - in Ft. Greely, Alaska, and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Now, however, the plan is to cap the interceptors at the 26 already in place at Ft. Greely and keep the four in Vandenberg. It is unclear whether spares will be pursued as replacements if any are launched or otherwise removed.

Part of the George W. Bush administration's plan for GMD also entailed the so-called Third Site in Eastern Europe, comprising a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 two-stage GBIs in Poland. That effort, which envisioned U.S. silos there being loaded around 2013, has at least slowed rhetorically while President Barack Obama's administration mulls new diplomacy with Russia.

Gates' plans -- together with dropping the Multiple Kill Vehicle, culling the Airborne Laser and underpinning Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Aegis Ballistic Missile systems -- signals a shift for the Missile Defense Agency. Less focus is being placed in expanding the scope of capabilities in midcourse defense and more attention is to be put on firming up the ever elusive boost phase defense.

Photo credit: Missile Defense Agency