Bechtel Completes U.S. Missile Defense Project

Bechtel announced today the company has successfully completed design and construction of missile silos and fields vital to the security of the United States. The work was completed on schedule and within budget. The work was done under the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Program, which aims to protect the U.S. from long-range ballistic missile attacks. 

Bechtel has carried out key elements of the GMD program under a contract with Boeing since 1997. The company’s significant achievements on the program include the engineering and construction of three missile fields consisting of 40 silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and four operational silos and one test silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California. The company also designed and built missile test sites at VAFB and Meck Island in the Marshall Islands, and designed and built the Ground-Based Interceptor Development and Integration Lab in Alabama. Bechtel supported the execution of several successful flight tests on the GMD program, including the most recent Control Test Vehicle-01 test, conducted at VAFB. These flight tests evaluate the overall performance of each part of the missile defense system.

“These are complex projects of national importance. Our team’s commitment to the mission and collaboration with our customer ensured the customer’s goal was met safely, on time, and within budget,” said Craig Albert president of Bechtel’s government services business unit.

Bechtel’s performance on the project was recognized by multiple awards. The Bechtel GMD team was awarded the Boeing Performance Excellence Award—Silver Level for quality and on-time delivery. And the Bechtel construction team received one of the first Voluntary Protection Program Star status awards for its safety and health program at a mobile construction site.

“The safety record on this project exceeded industry standards, even though the project locations were in remote areas where temperatures could range from -50F to 95F. In Alaska for example, the team was able to achieve more than 1.5 million hours with no lost-time incidents,” said Joe Brown, Bechtel’s GMD project manager. “We are pleased to have worked with Boeing to advance the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s important mission.”

Bechtel has been a major defense contractor for more than 50 years.  The group is responsible for chemical demilitarization projects, missile defense infrastructure, base operations, and non-proliferation projects around the world. Notable projects include: Pueblo and Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plants in Colorado and Kentucky, the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the management of defense projects at the Nevada Test Site, the modernization of the Climatic Test Chamber at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and the Biologic Threat Reduction Program for the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.