HILL AIR FORCE BASE — As the enormous program to replace the entire land-based portion of the U.S. nuclear enterprise continues to gain steam at Hill Air Force Base, a group of disarmament activists are asking for a slow-down.

A coalition of nine environmental and military watchdog groups have formally asked the Air Force to extend the public comment deadline on an Environmental Assessment for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent Test Program.

Headquartered at Hill, the Department of Defense GBSD program will replace the United States’ current ground ballistic missile force, which is made up of some 400 Minuteman ICBMs. The full program is estimated to cost more than $80 billion over its 30 year lifespan. The total cost includes the acquisition of missiles, new command and control systems, and large-scale renovations of launch control centers.

Currently being built up near Hill’s southwest border with Roy, the program will eventually include six new buildings with over 1 million square feet of office and lab facilities. In August 2019, Northrop Grumman broke ground on the Roy Innovation Center, which will serve as future headquarters for Northrop’s work supporting the program.

Base officials and members of Utah’s congressional delegation have said the program will be the largest source of growth across the base during the next several years, expected to bring as many as 4,000 new employees along with the construction of the new buildings.

Though the program also encompasses work that will be conducted at Air Force bases in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, an Air Force notice on the Federal Register says maintenance, training, storage, testing, support, decommissioning and disposal actions would occur at Hill and the base’s Utah Test and Training Range on the Utah/Nevada border. A public comment period on that component of the program is scheduled to end Monday, March 22.

In their letter, the coalition asks the Air Force to extend the comment period by 90 days, saying there’s been a “lack of information and outreach” to the public, local governments, tribes and other organizations that could have an interest in the program.

“(The program) demands a greater effort on the part of the proponents to engage the public in a meaningful process with robust opportunity to comment,” the letter reads. “There is absolutely no urgency to approve this test program. Construction of the strategic nuclear missiles to be flight tested is not even underway, as the facilities to produce these missiles are in the early stages of construction.”

As part of the program, construction at Hill includes five storage units and several support facilities. Another 11 missile storage facilities would be built at the UTTR. The Utah Legislature approved nearly $41 million of funding for the program during the 2021 general session.

“Construction of the facilities to manufacture these new missiles has only just begun,” said Steve Erickson, a signer of the letter and longtime Utah activist with the Citizens Education Project. “Local boosters of the project tout its … price tag and … new local jobs, and even convinced the Utah Legislature to spend $40 million of state tax dollars … but from a national security perspective, this is needless and wasteful overkill over and over again.”

In a statement, the Air Force Global Strike Command’s Public Affairs office said the Air Force cannot extend the public comment period, but will continue to “consider and appreciate substantive input received on the proposal.

“The current schedule is required to allow the (Air Force) to implement the program in a manner that meets critical defense and deterrence,” the statement says. “The (Air Force) has issued multiple press releases available on the internet and through other electronic media sources.”