Central ND News

Nearly $20 million has been allocated by the U.S. Department of Defense for runway repairs at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. The contract was awarded to United Crane and Excavation, a company based in Grand Forks.

Senator John Hoeven, who serves on the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, played a role in securing funding for this project through the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations legislation. He has also urged the Air Force to move forward quickly with the repairs to maintain and expand the base’s operational capacity.

The improvements are intended to support ongoing and future missions at Grand Forks Air Force Base. These include unmanned operations such as MQ-9 flights and activities related to Project ULTRA out of Grand Sky, as well as Customs and Border Protection unmanned flights. Senator Hoeven is also working to bring additional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions to the base.

In a statement, Hoeven said: “The Grand Forks Air Force Base is at the center of many critical missions and defense priorities for our nation, including the current Global Hawk mission, the UAS research and development at Grand Sky through Project ULTRA and unmanned border protection operations. That’s why we worked to advance this nearly $20 million award to accelerate runway repairs at the base, which are needed to ensure the base continues to have the capacity to support these and other future missions, like additional ISR operations, that we are working to bring to the base.”