Col. Ty Cisneros, division chief for Air Force Global Strike Command, speaks during a North Dakota Nuclear Triad Symposium in Minot on April 28, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
MINOT, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Minot Air Force Base could see hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investment over the next few years as the Department of Defense upgrades and modernizes its nuclear missile and bomber capabilities.
During a public event in Minot Tuesday, Col. Ty Cisneros, division chief for Air Force Global Strike Command, told attendees the Sentinel missile system will modernize the nuclear launch capability of the U.S. military and impact military defense for the next 50 years.
“The world is changing and new threats are emerging,” Cisneros said during a Nuclear Triad Symposium. “The Sentinel weapon system will be able to keep up with the threat and get ahead of it as well as we move forward.”
The Sentinel missile system will replace the Minutemen III intercontinental ballistic missile systems that were installed near the Minot Air Force Base and at different sites across the country in the 1960s.
Cisneros said maintenance costs for the Minutemen III were growing for years, and replacement parts were becoming more difficult to find to keep the weapons systems operational.
“We cannot rely on a 60-year-old system indefinitely to counter tomorrow’s threats,” he said. Cisneros added project construction is expected to begin in early 2027 and could take three to five years to complete.
About $232 million of President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion 2027 budget request for the Department of Defense is earmarked for the transition to the Sentinel missile system and infrastructure upgrades, according to a news release from Sen. John Hoeven’s office. The proposed Defense Department budget is a 42% increase in military spending over the previous year.
“These projects not only replace aging buildings from the 1950s and 1960s, they also modernize the capabilities of the security forces and maintenance forces at Minot, in direct support of the Sentinel program,” said Hoeven, a member of the Senate Defense and Military Constructions Appropriations Committee, in a statement.
The upgrades will include construction of a 130,000-square-foot Sentinel Security Forces Operations Complex and 82,000-square-foot vehicle maintenance facility.
The operations complex will also include an armory, training and administrative spaces as well as support more than 1,000 military security personnel. The vehicle maintenance facility will nearly triple the amount of vehicles that can be maintained on base from about 500 to 1,400 vehicles, Hoeven’s office said.
“The completion of these two projects will pave the way for eight Sentinel projects at Minot, representing hundreds of millions of dollars of additional investment,” Hoeven said.
The work is expected to bring between 3,000 to 5,000 temporary workers to the Minot area during the construction process and should provide extra economic activity to the surrounding area, said Minot Mayor Mark Jantzer.
“Those contractors will be buying gas and buying food and housing their people,” Jantzer said. He added the impact could be similar to the Bakken oil boom in western North Dakota.
“This missile complex is 8,500 square miles, so the Velvas and the Bertholds and the Carpios, all these communities that surround us and are part of the missile complex will obviously have the same kind of benefits,” he said.
In September, Gov. Kelly Armstrong announced North Dakota National Guard’s 219th Security Forces Squadron and Air National Guard’s 119th Wing will have expanded roles at Minot Air Force Base through an agreement with the Air Force for enhanced security of the missile fields and operations with the base’s B-52 bomber fleet.
“We are excited that the Air Force Global Strike Command will develop plans for future expansion of the detachment beyond operations and maintenance,” Armstrong said Tuesday. “To be the most military-friendly state and most secure nation, we need to collaborate across local, state and federal levels.”
Brig. Gen. Mitchell Johnson, adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard, said the upgrade and modernization at Minot Air Force Base will provide additional opportunities for National Guard members.
“We’re going to have to help with things like nuclear convoys, continued missile security … the Guard is going to be totally integrated with that, like they’ve always been,” Johnson said. “We’re here to help with active duty to seamlessly integrate.”
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