TRA arranged for a Zoom virtual event with Steven D. Lunny, vice president and program manager for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) program in the Strategic Deterrent Systems Division at Northrop Grumman’s Space Systems, who provided a top-level overview and answered questions on the GBSD mission and program.
GBSD is a vital U.S. Air Force program to modernize the nation’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system. In his role as program manager, Lunny is responsible for cost, schedule and technical execution of the GBSD EMD contract activities and the overall management of the industry team responsible for modernizing the land leg of the nuclear triad.
Previously, Lunny served as vice president and program director for the Advanced Mission Programs Portfolio for Space Systems at Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems (NGAS), vice president of the Integrated National Systems business unit within Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems (NGMS) and vice president and program manager for the New Moon program within NGMS. Earlier within NGAS, Lunny served as the AMP deputy program manager and as the program manager for the Advanced Technology Programs (ATP) and served as director of System Engineering at Northrop Grumman’s former Space Technology sector. Lunny has more than 37 years of system engineering and program management experience, spanning payloads to mission levels throughout all phases of the system development cycle across multiple missions and customer communities.
Lunny earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia.
In September 2020, the United States Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation the $13.3 billion EMD contract to develop a new nuclear missile, the GBSD, intended to replace the 50-year old Minuteman III (MMIII) ICBM. MMIII has been deployed as the ground-based leg of the U.S. nuclear forces structure (the “Triad”) since 1970.
The GBSD EMD phase includes full system design, qualification, test and evaluation, and nuclear certification. Upon successful completion of EMD, the Northrop Grumman team will begin producing and delivering a modern and fully integrated ICBM system to meet the Air Force’s schedule of initial operational capability by 2029.
NOTE: Logged in TRA members may view the recorded video of Steve’s talk at this LINK.
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