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The U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF) awarded a $13.3 billion Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program to Northrop Grumman on Sept. 8.
The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC), the lead for the DAF’s GBSD acquisition effort, announced that the effort will span 8.5 years and include weapon system design, qualification, test and evaluation and nuclear certification.
Upon successful completion of EMD, the Northrop Grumman team will begin producing and delivering a modern and fully integrated weapon system to meet the Air Force schedule of initial operational capability (IOC) by 2029.
According to an Air Force statement, the contract award of $13.3 billion is “an investment in enhancing the United States’ nuclear deterrence, as it is the cornerstone of national security policy and fundamental in continued protection for the U.S. and its allies”. The program advances the nation’s ability to maintain a robust, flexible, tailorable and responsive strategic nuclear deterrent to meet current and changing global threats.
The GBSD ICBM is the follow-on to the aging LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM and first became operational in 1970. The new ICBM will have increased accuracy, enhanced security and improved reliability to provide the U.S. with an upgraded and broader array of strategic nuclear options to address the threats of today and the future.
The dispersed basing of the ground-based deterrent enhances strategic stability by creating an extraordinarily high threshold for a large-scale conventional or nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland. This investment will protect a vital leg of the nuclear triad, according to U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) officials.
The EMD award follows a highly successful three-year technology maturation and risk reduction (TMRR) phase-one effort by Northrop Grumman under the GBSD competition. The company said in a statement that the team demonstrated innovation and agility by applying a digital engineering approach and has achieved all TMRR design review milestones on time and on cost.
Work on the program will be performed at the Northrop Grumman GBSD facilities in Roy and Promontory, Utah, as well as other key Northrop Grumman sites across the U.S. that include Huntsville and Montgomery, Alabama; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Bellevue, Nebraska; San Diego and Woodland Hills, California; Chandler, Arizona; Annapolis Junction, Maryland; and at our nationwide team locations across the country.
The Northrop Grumman GBSD team includes Aerojet Rocketdyne, Bechtel, Clark Construction, Collins Aerospace, General Dynamics, HDT Global, Honeywell, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Textron Systems, as well as hundreds of small and medium-sized companies from across the defense, engineering and construction industries.
