Boeing missile work funding Alaska’s economy
Published Sunday, November 16, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — The Boeing Company’s work on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense missile program added more than $246 million to Alaska’s economy in 2007 and supported more than 700 direct and indirect jobs, according to a University of Alaska Fairbanks study.
Boeing is a major contractor for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s GMD program, the nation’s defense against long-range ballistic missiles. Fort Greely, about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, houses 22 of the launch-ready interceptors in underground silos.
Boeing commissioned the study to quantify the monetary contributions its work makes in communities, said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. Along with Fort Greely, Boeing’s GMD work takes place in Adak, Kodiak and Shemya.
The GMD program is the hub of the Missile Defense Agency’s framework to protect the nation against a ballistic missile attack. GMD interceptors are designed to destroy incoming missiles in the midcourse part of a missile’s flight. The interceptors are not armed with warheads or explosives, but instead rely on the force of impact for their destructive power.
The technology grew into an on-the-ground program without being fully tested. Several interceptor tests have failed, leaving some to question whether the program could in fact protect against a hostile missile launch from abroad. President-elect Barack Obama has voiced some skepticism about the GMD program, and Joe Biden has been outspoken in his opposition.
Fancher said the study was commissioned well before the 2008 election to highlight GMD program capabilities and accomplishments.
Spending in 2007 totaled about $246 million in Alaska, according to Boeing’s study, a level that should be paralleled in 2008 and 2009. Funding for the GMD program is typically $8 billion to $10 billion a year nationally.
“In the outyears, it’s difficult for us to tell,” he added. “That will be dependent on what Congress decides to appropriate and what the administration decides to request.”
Sen. Ted Stevens proved a staunch supporter of continued funding for the GMD program, especially in Alaska. Recently convicted of ethics violations, the longtime senator may not be returned to office this year. His Democratic opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, is favored to win the 2008 election. Votes are still being counted and a final result is expected Wednesday.
Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner said future support and funding under a new White House administration is in the hands of the Department of Defense.
“It is incumbent on the Department of Defense to make sure they have the information they need to make informed decisions in the future,” he said.
President George Bush requested $9.3 billion for GMD for 2009, a figure Congress cut to $9 billion. The funding is spread among 11 programs, one of which is the ground-based project at Fort Greely. The overall program includes an array of radar, sensors, command-and-control facilities and communications infrastructure.
Fancher said Boeing continues to build and install interceptor silos at Fort Greely. Much of Boeing’s workforce at the Delta-area base maintains the system and assists with operations.
Lehner, with the Missile Defense Agency, said the interceptors should undergo another test by the end of 2008, with a target missile launched from Kodiak. An interceptor will be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to destroy the target. Because Fort Greely is so close to Delta Junction, interceptors aren’t test-fired from that site.
Boeing is also under contract with the government to develop a GMD interceptor site in Poland. By 2014 the MDA plans to have 40 interceptors in place in Alaska, four in California and 10 in Poland, agency spokesman Rick Lehner said.
The UAF study, led by economics professor Hans Geier, found that the average Boeing GMD worker in 2007 earned about 1.7 times the average wage in Alaska.
Other economic impacts in Alaska in 2007 include $52 million in payroll, $72 million in Alaska household earnings and $9.6 million in state and local government tax revenue.
Geier also noted that many of the Boeing benefits are in rural areas, where economic activity is offering stable, high-paying jobs for residents with limited options.
Three GMD interceptors also are set in underground silos at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Community Discussion
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This is one of the first things the Obama administration will shut down.
MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) worked for the entire Cold War. It still works today. If someone really wanted to hurt the United States- and they possessed a nuclear weapon, they could smuggle it in and detonate it. If a rouge nation like N. Korea fired a ICBM at the US (assuming that they even had the technology) the US would know who launched the strike and respond accordingly. That is what makes the silliness in Delta such a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. Worse, other nations, like China, may feel a need to increase their stockpile of ICBMs as they believe the US could strike first with a nuclear attack, and be shielded from a retaliatory strike.
All of this is madness. In a very short time this program will be scrapped and the military industrial complex will be crying because they will not be unnecessarily enriched by our tax dollars.
Wasn't it Boeing that was caught bribing key Pentagon players? They bribe key people but then we trust them with these sorts of contracts when they are proven crooks? More insanity.
What a wonderful waste of American Taxpayer dollars!
The only good I see in this is more money for the interior.
The bad parts-
A national missile defence system in Interior Alsaka makes Interior Alaska a strategic target, as in one of the first places to get a nuke up our collective hindquarters.
A national missile defence system makes it harder to convice Americans to let Alaska become it's own country. It makes us even more strategically important than we were before.
This project means more military personel chasing all the local girls too, as a side note.
The average Boeing GMT worker may make 1.7 times the average Alaskan, but I doubt that they call Alaska home.
Fear not, Whitaker will hold another rally and hand out red T shirts, or will they be blue to match his change of party. Seems like Alaskans have their heads buried in the sands when it comes to the recession and new administration impacting them in a negative manner. Just look at what the Russian president is saying about this defense program and how Obama will correct this infringement. For to long, Alaskans have accepted all those earmark money pay checks without questioning the fact the day would come when they would end.
This base and those jobs were another in the long list of reasons to Vote for Senator Stevens...You can bet under Begich/Obama Alaska will get nothing. You think life is tough in rual Alaska now...Just wait..Begich will need a map to even locate most of rual Alaska.
Don't worry the new Administration along with it's leader will eventually reduce the missile program along with many other military programs.
Just as in the Clinton era they will also get around to reducing the size of the military as well.
Of course all the money saved will be diverted into other dubious make work programs without any potential of creating spin off technology that may be of use in the civilian sector in the future...
I'm not worried, I can speak Russian. Liberal'nyye duraki.
The first of many cuts the Obama/Biden folks will make. The Republicans build the military up - the Democrats can't wait to cut it! We have a lot of folks that hate us out there - we need to maintain a strong military!!!
We NEED a STRONG America!!!!!!!
And - the best way to strengthen this nation is to educate our youth. These ridiculous Star Wars-type programs are horrifically inefficient ways to defend our country, to distribute Washington largesse, to provide for the economic well-being of locations like Delta Jct. Its $8-10bn/yr nationwide expenditures - OR its $246 million in Alaskan-only spending - would provide for a far, far more secure nation were it to be directed toward education.
This program is a complete joke. It may (assuming it ever works reliably) stop a small handful of missiles from reaching their targets. The problem, though, is that no-one is EVER going to launch a small handful of missiles at us.
If North Korea ever went wacko and wanted to nuke a US city, they'd be best served by smuggling it in, as their entire country would be turned to glass if they launched a missile, successful or not.
If China or Russia wanted to nuke us, they'd launch hundreds and hundreds of missiles, which would overwhelm the defense system and kill everyone.
In otherwords, its primary objective is never going to happen, and its secondary objective is a complete failure. A colossal waste of billions of dollars. Shut it down now.
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