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More than two decades after the idea of a missile defense system was conceived during the Reagan administration, workers at Fort Greely installed the first interceptor missile in a launching pad picked for Alaska's strategic location in the globe.
About a dozen Boeing employees dressed in orange and neon green safety vests oversaw the methodical lowering of the missile, the first of six that the military plans to install and have prepared for launch by the end of this year.
Major Gen. John Holly, echoing the sentiments of most of the senior officers Thursday, called the installment of the first missile an important milestone in the nation's effort to defend itself against a missile attack launched at the United States from another continent.
Holly, director of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System, called the event a culmination of efforts that began with Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
When the missile is readied for launch, the United States will finally have some type of capability to defend itself against an intercontinental ballistic missile attack, he said.
Three mouse clicks--there's no big red button--will send the interceptor out of its silo in the direction of an attacking missile, said Col. Damian Bianca, project manager for the system. After its initial launch, the $40 million missile is designed to deploy an "exo-atmospheric kill vehicle," or a 52-pound tip on the interceptor that Bianca said can move with such speed it will destroy an incoming missile in space with pure kinetic energy.
"I can't tell you how fast it maneuvers in space because it's classified, but I can tell you it's fast," Bianca said.
Although the military did not hold a formal ceremony Thursday, something it did on July 3 to mark the end of major construction after more than two years of work, media serving audiences as far as Japan, Germany and Sweden were escorted onto Fort Greely to watch the missile installment.
In several interviews, the project's senior officers reiterated a unified response to questions about criticism of the project based on its cost, effectiveness and necessity in an era when the threat of hijacked airplanes receives more attention than intercontinental missiles.
"The bottom line is I guess we all got to realize we don't have any capability" to defend against a missile attack, said Col. Jeffrey Horne, deputy commander in charge of forces that will staff the site. "Our intent is to provide a capability."
Bianca later mentioned North Korea as a specific example of a threat.
As he did during the dedication ceremony on July 3, Holly defended the effectiveness of the system Thursday, pointing to successful hits on four of the last five practice runs.
Altogether, operators have been successful in striking five of eight practice targets. In the tests, operators launched an interceptor from the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific at targets coming from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The last test, in December 2002, was unsuccessful because of a failure in a computer chip, Holly has said. The military plans to arrange another test later this year with a target launched from Kodiak Island, giving operators a chance to test performance when the target is coming from a different angle.
While calling the installment of the first missile Thursday an important milestone, Holly and the other officers said that the military still has plenty of work to do on the site, located in a cleared-out 800-acre field some 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks.
The first missile was flown into Eielson Air Force Base and trucked to Fort Greely down the Richardson Highway in a tractor-trailer that other motorists wouldn't be able to tell from any other heavy-duty rig, said Maj. Eric Maxon, spokesman for the missile defense program.
A second missile has already been transported to Fort Greely--this time it was flown directly to nearby Allen Army Air Field--and is being "mated" with a kill vehicle in a building the military calls the "Readiness and Control Facility," he said.
After the first six interceptors are installed by the end of this year, the military plans to add another 10 in a separate launch pad next year.
Meanwhile, another four interceptors will be installed at the Vandenberg base, giving the military options for defending the entire United States against an attack, Holly said.
"Our capacity will continue to improve over time," he said.
Reporter Daniel Rice can be reached at drice@newsminer.com or 459-7503.