Ground-Based Midcourse Defense

Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) is the United States' system for intercepting incoming warheads in space. It is a major component of the American missile defense strategy to counter ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). GMD is administered by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), while the operational control and execution is provided by the U.S. Army, and support functions are provided by the U.S. Air Force. Previously known as National Missile Defense (NMD), the name was changed in 2002 to differentiate it from other U.S. missile defense programs, such as space-based and sea-based intercept programs, or defense targeting the boost phase and reentry flight phases. The program is projected to cost $40 billion by 2017.

Description
The system consists of ground-based interceptor missiles and radar which would intercept incoming warheads in space. Boeing Defense, Space & Security is the Prime Contractor of the program, tasked to oversee and integrate systems from other major defense sub-contractors, such as Computer Sciences Corporation.

The key systems of the GMD system are:
 * Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) — Raytheon
 * Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) — Orbital Sciences; for every interceptor missile there is a missile silo and a Silo Interface Vault (SIV), which is an underground electronics room adjacent to the silo.
 * Battle Management Command, Control and Communications (BMC3) — Northrop Grumman
 * Ground Based Radars (GBR) — Raytheon
 * Upgraded Early Warning Radars (UEWR) (aka PAVE PAWS) — Raytheon
 * Forward Based X-Band Radars (FBXB) such as the Sea based X band platform and the AN/TPY-2 — Raytheon



Interceptor sites are at Fort Greely, Alaska  and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; a third site was planned for a proposed US missile defense complex in Poland, but was canceled in September 2009. A description of the program can be found in the Missile Defense Agency Budget Item Justification document, dated February 2007.

In December 2008, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded Boeing a $397.9 million contract to continue development of the program.

In March 2013, the Obama administration announced plans to add 14 more interceptors in addition to the current 26 at Fort Greely in response to North Korean threats. The deployment of a second TPY-2 radar to Japan was announced at the same time. While Obama said that the additional deployment was a hedge against unexpected capabilities, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei complained that the additional defenses would impact on global strategic balance and strategic trust.

Program costs
Expenditures on the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program have been estimated at US$30.7 billion by 2007. In 2013, it is estimated that the program will cost $40.926 billion from inception through FY2017; in 2013-17 spending is to total $4,457.8M, an average of $892M per year.

Flight tests

 * BV: Booster Verification Test
 * CMCM: Critical Measurements and Countermeasures
 * FTG: Flight Test Ground-Based Interceptor
 * FTX: Flight Test Other
 * IFT: Integrated Flight Test

Intercept tests
As of July 2013, 8 of the 17 (47%) hit-to-kill intercept tests have succeeded.

Canceled tests
Throughout the program's history, numerous test flights have been canceled. Among them, BV-4, IFT-11, -12, -13, -13A, -15, FTC-03, and most recently, FTG-04, have been canceled. The pattern of canceled tests makes it difficult to determine actual project progress.