Hoeven: President’s Budget Includes $232 Million to Start Sentinel Upgrades at Minot Air Force Base

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Defense and Military Constructions Appropriations Committees, today outlined a $232 million proposal to begin Sentinel upgrades at Minot Air Force Base (MAFB) as part of the president’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request. The request covers two large projects supporting the Sentinel program: Sentinel Security Forces Operations Complex – $108 million The 130,000-square-foot complex will include state-of-the-art armory, training, administrative and storage spaces. The complex consolidates seven buildings into one and will support more than 1000 security personnel charged with safeguarding U.S. nuclear capabilities at the only dual nuclear mission base in the nation. Sentinel Consolidated Vehicle Maintenance Complex – $124 million The new complex will be 82,000 square feet and consolidate five buildings into two. Once completed the complex will nearly triple, from 500 to 1400, the number of vehicles able to be maintained. Through his role on the Senate Defense Appropriations and Senate Military Construction Committees, Hoeven will work to secure the funding request to begin construction on the Sentinel complexes in 2027. “This $232 million budget request represents the start of Sentinel upgrades at Minot Air Force Base. 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. “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. This budget request is the first step in this process, now we’ll work to fund this project through the annual appropriations process to get construction underway.” Hoeven has been working to accelerate the development of Sentinel at Minot, the nation’s only dual-nuclear base. The senator recently met with Gen. Dale White, the head of the Air Force’s Sentinel ICBM program to discuss ways to accelerate the development of Sentinel. White recently visited MAFB at the Senator’s invitation to see firsthand the existing missions and further review the ICBM program. -###-