Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
1/30/2015
The Defense Department is budgeting $944 million for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) in the Future Years’ Defense Plan, and a Request for Information released Jan. 23 has generated interest from multiple possible suitors, as the Air Force strives to employ an affordable, more accurate intercontinental ballistic missile with new booster stacks to replace the 1970-debuted Minuteman 3, an industry executive with project knowledge has told NS&D Monitor. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are “beating the bushes” trying to find as much information as possible about the GBSD, while Draper Laboratories, Honeywell, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Orbital Sciences, ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne have also shown interest, particularly in the possibility of serving as subcontractors, according to officials.
While Boeing spokeswoman Queena Jones declined to state Boeing’s intentions of whether to respond to the RFI, she said Boeing could consider future opportunities. “Given our demonstrated capabilities in the ICBM market, we believe the Government can benefit from our expertise and innovation as the approach to filling the GBSD need is refined,” she wrote to NS&D Monitor in an email this week. “We will continuously evaluate GBSD related opportunities as they arise and identify areas where we can build on the Government’s confidence in our capabilities.” Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, the other companies reportedly interested in GBSD prime contracts, did not respond to NS&D Monitor requests for comment.
$75M to Be Requested by President for GBSD in FY 2016
The Obama Administration is reportedly planning to request $75 million for work on the GBSD for Fiscal Year 2016, which will be reflected in the President’s Budget request that will be released Feb. 2. The Air Force did not immediately respond to an NS&D Monitor request for comment. Although the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act did not contain a “GBSD” budget line, it authorized $30.9 million for ICBM demonstration and validation, under the bill’s Air Force RDT&E section.
Contracting Structure
While the exact GBSD contracting structure has not yet been made clear, the RFI states during the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction (TMRR) phase—DoD’s second standard acquisition phase— the government plans to promote competition to award multiple contracts. “Each contract will encompass the entire replacement effort,” the RFI states. “The TMRR phase will include a System Requirements Review (SRR), a System Design Review (SDR) and will conclude with a system Preliminary Design Review (PDR).” The RFI also notes that contracts could require creation of risk-reduction prototyping of high-risk critical technology elements like accelerometers, and that the government intends to award contracts during the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase after Milestone B approval. The Air Force intends to down-select after completing predetermined ground testing.
Accuracy a Driver
Air Force officials have recently emphasized that affordability was a primary driver of the Analysis of Alternatives for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent. Yet the executive told NS&D Monitor that ICBM accuracy suffered after the retirement of the Peacekeeper in 2005, adding that precision was another “core issue” that the Air Force is addressing through its GBSD concept. “For years, we met the ICBM accuracy requirement with the Peacekeeper missile, and then when the Peacekeeper missile retired, a lot of our accuracy went away, because the Minuteman is not as accurate as Peacekeeper. So there’s actually an accuracy deficit in what we need,” the executive said. “To get the kind of accuracy that the country needs at an affordable price, we need some next-generation guidance instruments. We have been working on those almost continually for years at a very low rate.”
The government defines “very hard targets”—such as modern missile silos and leadership bunkers buried deep underground—as any target that requires 3,000 to 10,000 pounds per square inch (psi) to be destroyed, according to government documents. The ability to destroy these targets depends on warhead size and missile accuracy. While the government started replacing the Minuteman 3’s W78 warheads carrying a TNT yield of 335-350 kilotons with Peacekeeper’s W87 warheads carrying a TNT yield of up to 475 kilotons since 2006, the Minuteman 3 guidance system is less accurate than its predecessor’s, documents show.
Concept Won’t Preclude Mobile Basing Option
Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, Vice Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said in September that DoD is considering designing a “flexibility” in the GBSD to revisit the weapon’s ground basing mode if officials determine a need for a mobile capability, adding that current Minuteman 3s don’t offer that adaptability. One problem is that current gimbals on Minuteman 3s could confuse the ICBM guidance system’s location recognition function if an attempt is made to make the weapon mobile, according to the executive. “Now it’s not difficult or expensive to give the thing the guidance set, the capability, to do that,” the executive said. “It’s just that when it was built, they didn’t envision that they would ever do that, so they didn’t build in that capability.” But it “would take years” to build and assemble the proper trucks and other mobile support equipment, the executive said.
‘Restoration and Modernization’ of Launch Facilities Planned
The RFI states that a “restoration and modernization” of 50-year-old Minuteman 3 launch facilities and launch control centers will be executed beginning in “approximately 2022,” after a “thorough investigation” of launch facilities and control centers. The RFI asks if companies are interested in participating in the assessment effort, which could entail data mining using existing maintenance data and detailed inspections of some portions of the facilities. “This inspection process could include both non-intrusive methods and potentially a more intrusive method involving excavation of either non-operational sites, operational site, or both,” the RFI states. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is hosting an Industry Day at Hill AFB Feb. 18-20 to brief industry on the GBSD. Contractors will be allowed to ask questions about the GBSD and its Capability Development Document. Responses to the RFI are due by 4:30 p.m. March 20 Mountain Time.
