At a remote U.S. Army installation in central Alaska, the lynchpin of America’s ballistic missile defense system is nearing completion.

Since breaking ground, more than a year ago, 550 acres have been cleared, 5,400 cubic yards of concrete poured, more than 80,000 square feet of building space are under construction and six interceptor silos installed at the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) launch complex at Fort Greely. Boeing, as prime contractor for GMD, manages the construction of the missile silo field and will ultimately be responsible for integrating all the components of the GMD system to form the initial defensive capability in late 2004 as required by the Bush administration.



Work continues at the site despite inhospitable conditions that include temperatures that dip on average to 40 below and winds that can gust up to 90 mph.

“Major construction under these conditions isn’t easy but the challenges can be overcome,” said Mark Spradling, Boeing site manager. “The key is schedule management and coordination of all the different activities, agencies and subcontractors. Communications among the team members is crucial.”

The Joint Program Office of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) manages and executes the GMD program. GMD is a system designed to develop a capability using hit-to-kill technology to shoot down hostile long-range ballistic missiles. The current program incorporates extensive ground and flight tests to determine system performance. Concurrently, Boeing and MDA are working aggressively to field an initial set of missile defense capabilities in 2004. Central to that initial capability is the Fort Greely site.



Leading the construction team are Boeing, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the GMD Joint Program Office for MDA. In addition, up to 30 different subcontracting firms, employing several hundred people, work at the site. Boeing and its general contractor, Bechtel, are responsible for the interceptor silo field. USACE and its contractor, Fluor Alaska, Inc., are doing the remaining facilities and support structures.

A Tri-Chair Partnership was formed to ensure daily communications between all the contractors and subcontractors so “everyone understands how each day’s work would impact someone else,” Spradling said.

“The teamwork has been nothing less than spectacular,” said Ken Medlin, Boeing vice president for Missile Defense Systems. “The synchronization of all the construction activities while maintaining a safe and secure workplace is a result of shared leadership among the site management team.”

By last summer, the Boeing/Bechtel team installed the last of the six silos required for initial defensive capability. Ground was broken in early October on a second missile field, not far from the first, where drilling will begin for ten additional silos in 2004.

Work continued 24/7 through the fall because many construction activities such as pouring concrete are halted by the harsh winter weather. The project is on schedule to have the silos’ construction phase complete by mid-February and ready for interceptor hardware, computers and ground support equipment.