United States Missile Defense Strengthened to 44 Interceptors Ahead of Schedule

Boeing and the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) team recently bolstered America’s defense against long-range ballistic missiles, ahead of schedule, with the installation of the 44th interceptor.

Placing the interceptor in its silo meets a U.S. Department of Defense requirement of increasing the inventory to 44 by the end of this year, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

This interceptor includes features demonstrated in the successful intercontinental ballistic missile intercept test conducted in May.

The interceptor is designed to launch and destroy ballistic missile threats after receiving detection and tracking information from land-, sea- and space-based sensors. The GMD system includes command-and-control facilities, communications terminals and a 20,000-mile fiber-optic communications network that interfaces with ballistic missile defense radars and other sensors.