North Korea’s big nuke doesn’t scare the 100th Missile Defense Brigade

By Abraham Mahshie

Published October 29, 2020 9:00am ET

North Korea’s big nuke doesn’t scare the 100th Missile Defense Brigade — The 'lead' Ground-based Interceptor is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., March 25, 2019, in the first-ever salvo engagement test of a threat-representative ICBM target. The two GBIs successfully intercepted a target launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. | Photo by Lisa Simunaci/Credit: Missile Defense Agency

Few air defenders have ever seen both sides of an intercontinental ballistic missile intercept.

Army Lt. Col. Tim Biart was for eight years an ICBM missileer manning the stations that are a turnkey away from a nuclear missile launch. Now, he’s part of the National Guard’s 100th Missile Defense Brigade at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, at the ready to launch interceptors against a rogue nation that might attack the United States.