The best defense against an armed conflict is to prevent it from ever starting. A credible deterrence, backed by defenses in depth, has helped prevent war on a global scale since 1945.
It's the responsibility of the U.S. military and partners like Bechtel to build and maintain the infrastructure keeping these tools at peak operational capability - to ensure the security of the nation and allies around the globe.
Keeping the peace
The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) weapon system is one of the United States' most sophisticated and powerful defense tools. But the Minuteman III ICBMs have been in service since the 1970s. The U.S. Air Force has undertaken a massive program to modernize this deterrent and its launch infrastructure without impacting its operational capability, which we are helping deliver through the Sentinel program.
Protecting the United States from long range attacks
If an enemy launches a ballistic missile attack against the U.S. mainland, seconds count. Bechtel served as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) missile interceptor program. Bechtel scope encompassed design and installation of three missile fields at Fort Greely, Alaska, and four operational silos and one test silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), California.
Keeping watch: cutting edge missile defense
The Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean put the United States on the cutting edge of missile and missile-interceptor development, space surveillance, and satellite tracking. Its long-range radars sweep the skies to form a crucial part of a U.S. early warning system.
Managing and operating the remote outpost, with the nearest landmass some 2,000 miles away, is a complex challenge. The challenge was met by Bechtel-led Kwajalein Range Services.