Orbital GMD Boost Vehicle - Manual

FACT SHEET
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
® , Taurus ® and Minotaur.
The DSC upgrade will provide next-
generation 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
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 long-
range 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.
The Raytheon-developed EKV is integrated with
Orbital’s GMD Boost Vehicle.
GMD Boost Vehicle
Ground-based Midcourse Defense Boost Vehicle
Silo emplacement of a Ground-based Midcourse Defense Boost Vehicle