Defense News
A Boeing-led team has finished building 20 new silos for the homeland missile defense system at Fort Greely, Alaska, growing the number of interceptors that can be emplaced there from 40 to 60.
Boeing recently announced it had officially installed “the first of 20 additional” silos for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system — now over 20 years old — designed to counter intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran. This also included silo interface vaults, which are “adjacent underground electronics rooms that maintain the readiness and effectiveness of interceptors,” according to a company statement.
The silos are located at the fourth missile field at Fort Greely. There are 40 Ground-Based Interceptors, or GBIs, in place there, with another four in the ground at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The expansion effort initially began under President Donald Trump’s first term and work continued through the Biden administration.
The Pentagon and the Missile Defense Agency initiated reprogramming funding in fiscal 2017 to increase the number of ground-based interceptors in a new missile field at the Alaskan fort from 44 to 64.\
