Next-Generation ICBM Gets New Name
US Air Force artist’s rendering of the Sentinel in flight. (Credit: US Air Force)
WASHINGTON: The Air Force’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile system has officially been designated the Sentinel, the service announced today.
The Sentinel, formerly referred to as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, is expected to begin replacing the Air Force’s Minuteman III ICBMs by the end of the decade.
Northrop Grumman won the $13.3 billion contract to build GBSD in 2020 after its sole competitor, Boeing, declined to bid on the program. Compared to the Minuteman III, which was fielded in 1970, the Sentinel system will have “increased accuracy, enhanced security, and improved reliability,” the Air Force has previously said.
Northrop expects to conduct its first test flight in 2023, with production of the missiles beginning in 2026, Greg Manuel, vice president of Northrop’s Strategic Deterrent Systems division told Breaking Defense in September.
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The naming of GBSD comes as a result of a statutory requirement in the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, which gave the Air Force 30 days after the enactment of the law to establish a popular name for the new ICBM system. (As is typical for the military, the Air Force is a little late fulfilling this requirement, as President Joe Biden signed the NDAA into law in late December.)
In a June 2021 op-ed in War on the Rocks, Tom Karako, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argued that the GBSD’s future designation should honor a specific entity, tell a story or link back to antiquity.
The name Sentinel arguably fulfills the latter two qualities, Karako told Breaking Defense this week, conjuring the idea of a soldier tirelessly keeping watch — not unlike the poor souls pulling a marathon 72-hour alert during the a blizzard at Minot Air Force Base, N.D.
“Given the expected lifespan of the program, the metaphor will inspire future operators whose parents may yet be unborn,” Karako joked in an email. “Hail, Sentinel. May your missileers never tire.”
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