Orbital GMD User Manual

FACT SHEET

GMD Boost Vehicle

Ground-based Midcourse Defense Boost Vehicle

Overview

Orbital Sciences Corporation
was selected by The Boeing
Company in December 2001
to design, develop, and test
a boost vehicle for the U.S.

Missile Defense Agency’s
(MDA) Ground-based Midcourse

Defense (GMD) program. The
GMD System is the first and only
operationally deployed missile
defense program to defend
the homeland against long­range ballistic missile attacks.
The system provides early
detection and tracking during
the boost phase, midcourse
target discrimination, precision
intercept and destruction of
inbound ICBMs through force of
hit-to-kill technology.

GMD has been in advanced

development since 1998 and is

based on technologies pioneered

by MDA in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

It is currently a research
and development program
incorporating extensive ground
and flight tests to verify system
performance against long range
ballistic missile targets. Boeing,
as the prime contractor, is
responsible for the development,
test, and integration of all the GMD elements, including the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI), Ground
Systems, and interfaces with other elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System.

The GMD System is designed to intercept and destroy hostile ballistic missiles during their
midcourse phase of flight, before their reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The GMD
Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) employs "hit-to-kill" technology to detect, discriminate, and
destroy an incoming missile’s warhead using only force of impact or kinetic energy. The Orbital
Boost Vehicle (OBV) is designed to deliver the EKV to the precise exoatmospheric endgame
conditions necessary to intercept the threat. Together, the OBV and EKV form the GBI, which is
integrated by Boeing.

Silo emplacement of a Ground- based Midcourse Defense Boost Vehicle

QUICK FACTS

The Orbital Sciences Corporation Boost
Vehicle (OBV) is a two or three-stage
solid motor rocket booster system
developed for the GBI. Orbital’s boost
vehicle has been successful in all eleven
flight tests conducted between February
2003 to January 2013.

The baseline OBV design is derived
from Orbital’s highly successful lineage
of small satellite launch vehicles –
Pegasus®, Ta urus® and Minotaur.
The DSC upgrade will provide next­generation avionics to support additional
tactical missile production and
sustainment of the system throughout
the coming decades.

• 30+ years of boost vehicle experience

• 24/7/365 operational capability

• State -of-the-Art high-reliability missile

avionics

• Fully ISO -9001 and AS9100 compliant

production processes

The Ray theon-developed EKV is integrated with
Orbital’s GMD Boost Vehicle.

GMD Boost Vehicle

GMD Program Overview

Under the initial Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV) contract, Orbital modified Pegasus,
Taurus, and Minotaur system designs to develop the OBV, and verified its
performance and operational features through a series of test flights that began
in early 2003. In early 2012, Orbital was awarded major subcontracts from
Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corporation under the GMD Development and
Sustainment Contract (DSC), which will extend Orbital’s involvement in the GMD

program through 2018. Under DSC, Orbital will develop signicant tactical avionics

upgrades for the OBV, deliver additional tactical boosters for upgraded GBIs,
and provide Operations and Sustainment support for the fleet of 30 operational

interceptors at Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Orbital has completed development of a two-stage variant of the baseline three-stage
OBV which provides GMD with a capability to engage a broader range of threats. The
two-stage OBV was successfully verified in a flight test in 2010. In all, there have been
eleven successful flight tests of the two- and three-stage OBV configurations through
2013 which demonstrate both the performance of the OBV as well as the ability of
GMD system elements to work together as an integrated system.

More Information

Business Development

[phone]

GMD Boost Vehicle Flight Test –
Eleven Launches, Eleven Successes

Taur u s Lit e BV-6

FT-1

FTG-03AFT-2

IF T-13 b

FTG-05

Orbital's Flight-Proven Heritage

Pegasus

OSP Minotaur Taur u s

Orbital’s GMD Boost Vehicle is derived from the company’s flight proven small space
launch vehicles.

FTG-06

BV T-1

FTG-06a CTV-01

Orbital Sciences Corporation

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©2014 Orbita l Sciences Corporatio n BR060 09_2429

•

Dulles, Virginia 20166

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www.orbital.com