More than 190 Boeing Co. workers across the country are receiving layoff notices this week as the company adjusts to changes in a missile program.
The Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense program is the nation’s only operational defense against long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles launched by a rogue state, such as North Korea or Iran. It uses a network of land-, sea- and space-based radars and sensors, connected by a 20,000-mile fiber-optic communications network to detect and track the launch of an enemy missile.
About 700 of the Chicago-based company’s nearly 3,000 employees in the Huntsville area work on GMD. Boeing’s headquarters for the program is in Huntsville, Ala., as are training facilities that include a working missile silo and an inert interceptor missile.
