Seven laydown/staging areas will also be set up in several area communities: Bowbells, Mohall, Stanley, Wabek, Garrison, Ruso and Balfour.

These would be in place for three to five years.

Minot Air Force Base is one of three missile bases in the U.S. to receive the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent or GBSD. F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming and Malmstrom AFB in Montana are also scheduled for the new missile system.

GBSD is the weapon system replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. It modernizes the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad.

MDN File Photo Minot Air Force Base and the Minot missile field will be the sites for construction for the new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, a new missile system to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. Implementation is scheduled to start at Minot AFB in 2027.

“It’s a big project that involves a whole lot of people and it’s an important project,” said Michael Ackerman, of Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s Environmental Planning,” during a Zoom meeting presentation this month for members of the Minot Area Chamber EDC’s Military Affairs Committee.

“We’re going to modernize everything in the Minuteman III field and bring it up to the new GBSD configuration,” said Michael Ackerman of Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s Environmental Planning, also on the Zoom presentation.

“Construction is slated to begin in late 2023 at F.E. Warren (AFB, Wyoming) and will be completed somewhere in the mid to late ’30s here at Minot,” Ackerman said.

He said they anticipate to arrive at Minot AFB for the project in the 2027 timeframe for construction on the installation and then rapidly spread out into the missile field.

The off-base construction includes 15 missile alert facilities and 150 launch facilities in the Minot missile field.

“For off-base activities we’re going to be replacing all the Minuteman IIIs (intercontinental ballistic missiles),” said Ackerman. “We’ll be renovating the launch facilities and the missile alert facilities.”

The missile alert facilities will be constructed new for the system, he added.

Ackerman said there will be new utility corridors that will be providing communication pathway. Existing utility corridors will be renovated.

Plans are for 939 miles of new utility corridors and 1,531 miles of existing utility corridors.

Instead of the “humongous ditches” done when Minuteman I came on line, Ackerman said they will be doing a much smaller footprint this time.

“As we encounter sensitive areas, we have plans to do directional drilling to get around those areas as well as intersections with roadways and street crossings,” he said.

He said a big addition to this project will be about 62 communications towers constructed in the three missile fields. There will be 13 communications towers in the Minot missile field. The Wyoming field will have 18 communication towers and the Montana field, 31.

“Each of those will be 300 feet tall and require guy wires,” Ackerman said. He said each location will be about five acres. The towers will be placed to avoid sensitive areas. He said there’s a possibility a few of the towers will be placed at existing missile alert facility locations but those plans are still being finalized.

On Sept. 8, 2020, the U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman the GBSD Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract.

Ackerman said Northrop Grumman will be establishing the temporary workforce hubs and centralized staging areas.

The 91st Missile Wing at Minot AFB oversees, maintains and secures the ICBMs in the Minot missile field.

“For on base we’re going to be building a lot of new structures to support the new GBSD system,” Ackerman said.

On-base work will include new construction and renovation to support GBSD command, communications, maintenance, training, and storage facilities.

“As part of the replacement there will be some decommissioning and disposal (of the Minuteman III weapons system),” Ackerman said.