B-21 Raider: Dyess Air Force Base breaks ground on $78 million mission planning facility

The U.S. Air Force has begun construction of the first facility at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, built solely for the B-21 Raider. A groundbreaking ceremony on 5 November marked the start of a 46,000-square-foot Mission Planning Facility, a $78 million project, according to the 7th Bomb Wing.

Dyess is one of the bases chosen to host the new stealth bomber. The building is intended to give crews the secure workspaces and communications needed to plan and generate global strike missions once the aircraft arrives.

What officials said

Col. Robert Sturgill Jr., commander of the 7th Bomb Wing and of the installation, called the facility “the nerve center of the B-21 campus here at Dyess”. Under Secretary of the Air Force Matt Lohmeier said the B-21 is “the world’s first and only next-generation bomber” and tied the project to Dyess’s history with the B-47, B-52 and B-1.

Sen. Ted Cruz, the keynote speaker, said he had helped secure military construction funding for Dyess through the National Defense Authorization Act.

A wider building programme

The Air Force says the facility is one step in a projected $1.6 billion modernisation roadmap for Dyess, covering more than 24 construction and renovation projects over the next decade. Sturgill described the broader effort as nearly $2 billion and said it would reach hangars, dormitories and childcare and support buildings.

The bomber itself has been in the news recently. Geopolitiki reported in October on B-21 Raider: Annual production to rise 25% with new assembly line at Palmdale, the plant side of a programme that now also needs bases, planning cells and secure networks to operate the aircraft.

The release did not give a completion date for the building or a date for the first B-21 to be based at Dyess.