GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. – The Space Force has proposed building a $250 million operations center at Grand Forks Air Force Base as part of President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget request.
It would be a 180,000 square foot facility that would bring highly classified operations covering missile warning and tracking and the space data network.
“This $250 million project is a major expansion of the space operations that we’ve worked to bring to Grand Forks, truly securing our state’s role in the future of military communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said. “This started with the LEO satellite mission that we worked with then-Space Development Agency Administrator Derek Tournear to establish. Since then, we have sought to add new capabilities to the satellite mission and build partnerships with the region’s high-tech ecosystem. So, when the Space Force outgrew its existing operations center at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado, North Dakota was an obvious choice for expansion. Now, we will work to fund this project through the annual appropriations process so we can start moving forward on design and construction.”
“This new project puts Grand Forks right at the center of what’s next in space operations,” North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer said. “It speaks to the depth of our Airmen and Guardians’ expertise and why this base keeps getting tapped for the most important and modern missions. With advanced ISR capabilities all in one place, Grand Forks is built to deliver timely, actionable intelligence for the space domain—tracking and understanding adversary threats with real precision. I’m looking forward to what’s ahead for the base and the broader defense ecosystem growing around it.”
