THAT WAS ALWAYS THE SUSPICION: Incoming North Korean Missile Warning Prompted FAA’s Mysterious Air Traffic Halt. “What’s also of interest is that minutes before the initial ground stop order and details surrounding it were communicated to some air traffic controllers, NORAD notified the FAA to have Los Angeles Air Traffic Control Center clear the airspace around the northern stretch of Vandenberg Space Force Base, which is located about 170 miles northwest of Los Angeles. We assume this was meant to ready the area for a potential launch of a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptor capable of knocking down ICBMs. While the vast majority of GMDs are based in Alaska, a handful are based at Vandenberg for limited operational contingency and test duties.”