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Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)

Affordable and Assured Warfighting Capability

Unmatched Missile System Management
As a primary supplier of Performance Based Logistics (PBL) for complex weapon systems, Northrop Grumman stands ready to provide operations and sustainment support for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.

GMD provides ballistic missile defense through a sophisticated system of interceptors and sensors, integrated through a fifire control and communication system. As the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) transitions this deployed system to a PBL environment, Northrop Grumman is prepared to address the challenges of that initiative through aggressive risk management, detailed planning and relentless warfighter focus.

Leveraging a multi-year, company-funded initiative to define GMD Performance Based Logistics solutions, Northrop Grumman will lead a coalition of industry experts to ensure this critical capability is affordable and available to trained warfighters.

The Northrop Grumman approach to GMD is based on three key principles:

Assured Capability
For more than 50 years, Northrop Grumman has pioneered the performance-based management of complex, highly reliable and missioncritical missile systems. Under its ICBM Prime Integration Contract, Northrop Grumman has refined a technique of Optimized System Management for the sustainment and modernization of silo-based missile systems that “need to work when it really counts.”

Northrop Grumman’s ongoing responsibility for GMD’s Fire Control and Communication (GFC/C) and the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center (MDIOC) provides the Ballistic Missile Defense System domain expertise to ensure that the GMD capability is available to our warfighters – whenever it’s needed.


GMD Stewardship
System stewardship is a culture of accountability achieved by balancing cost and performance in the near- and long-term. This culture is fundamentally engrained in Northrop Grumman’s approach to GMD Optimized System Management, providing confidence that GMD will remain current, available and affordable for decades to come.

Mission Assurance
Integrated supply chain management provides the framework to ensure that mission assurance requirements and their measurement are institutionalized throughout the GMD enterprise. Evidence of Northrop Grumman’s commitment to mission assurance can be found in the unparalleled quality, availability and reliability of other performance-based responsibilities including ICBM, B-2 and JSTARS.

Northrop Grumman is dedicated to an open and responsive partnership with MDA to succeed in maintaining GMD as a stable and robust platform for the future. The company’s record of excellence in missile systems management provides the reliable foundation for delivering GMD readiness and warfighter confidence.

For more information, please contact:
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems
301 Voyager Way
Huntsville, AL 35806

(256) 327-6030