Updated 2 p.m. Jan. 6

Multiple major military construction projects and new missions are underway at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Construction began this fall on the southside of the base for an access road for the weapons generation facility project.

The project is closing the southwest portion of Perimeter Road to all traffic through 2028. There will be a temporary fence around the construction area enclosing the southwest section of Perimeter Road with gates controlling access into the area, according to Malmstrom officials.

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Col. Barry Little, 341st Missile Wing commander at Malmstrom, told City Commissioners during their Jan. 2 meeting that the weapons generation facility is the first of billions of dollars in military construction coming to Great Falls.

The project has been on the books for several years and in June, the Air Force awarded a $376,929,000 firm-fixed-price construction contract to Archer Western Federal JV of Chicago for the facility.

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Little told commissioners that the work so far included removing the runway lights and some of the infrastructure from the airfield “because the Air Force does not intend to reactivate that airfield.”

For years, some city officials and other civic leaders have advocated protecting that runway in the hopes of regaining a flying mission at Malmstrom.

In 2018, County Commissioner Joe Briggs suggested reopening the runway at least temporarily to move materials and crews for the Sentinel project.

The Air Force deactivated the runway in 1997.

A 2013 estimate from the 341st Civil Engineer Squadron at Malmstrom had the least expensive option for making the runway suitable for transient aircraft would be $25 million to $35 million. That option didn’t include hangar space but did include a new control tower, base operations section and airfield lighting.

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Base officials have said repeatedly over the last decade that there was no plan to reactivate the runway, so more current estimates were not available.

Little said that an access road is being constructed on the southside of the base so the Army Corps of Engineers has access to the weapons generation facility construction site so they don’t have to go through the main gate security constantly. He said that they’re essentially carving out a separate campus from the main base for the construction project.

The weapons generation facility will replace the 1960s era facility for the modern mission, Little said.

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Little said that Malmstrom hosted Brig. Gen. Colin Connor, Maj. Gen. Ty Neuman and Col. David Miller in December.

Conner is the Air Force Global Strike Command director of intercontinental ballistic missile modernization and Neuman is AFGSC’s director of strategic plans, programs and requirements. Miller is AFGSC’s director of logistics and engineering.

The three coordinate and advocate for the funding and requirements for the modernization and recapitalization of strategic nuclear forces, to include the LGM-35 Sentinel missile and MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopters, according to the Air Force.

The Air Force is replacing the aging Minuteman III missile system with Sentinel.

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Components and subsystems of Minuteman have been upgraded since it first became operational in the early 1970s but most of the fundamental infrastructure uses the original equipment, according to the Air Force.

The land-based nuclear deterrent ICBM system includes 400 deployed missiles, 450 silos and more than 600 facilities across nearly 40,000 square miles over six states, three operational wings and a test location.

Appearing on Sheriff Jesse Slaughter’s podcast in late December, newly elected Mayor Cory Reeves said that City Manager Greg Doyon had told him that in conversations with ICBM communities in North Dakota and Wyoming and the Air Force, that the number one component of the Sentinel project would be tires and that’s why so many tire shops were popping up in Great Falls and the other ICBM communities.

The Electric checked on that statement.

The Air Force and the planning director of Cheyenne, Wyo. where F.E. Warren AFB is located, all said they’d heard nothing of the sort.

Reeves said that they’d be needing one million to two million tires for the project, which an Air Force spokesman estimated would be 250,000 vehicles for one million tires.

He said he’s heard “absolutely no one talk about tires with Sentinel,” until The Electric asked.

Sentinel missile system completes another test

Unless it was an emergency need for a small number of tires, the Air Force would handle bulk orders through contracts, according to AFGSC public affairs.

AFGSC officials said F.E. Warren was the first base to get the Sentinel system and they hadn’t heard of a spike in tire shops.

Charles Bloom, the planning director in Cheyenne, Wyo., where F.E. is located told The Electric that Les Schwab was building a tire shop currently, but, “I wouldn’t link it to Sentinel, just general growth. Cheyenne is growing in many retail sectors.”

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Bloom said that Sentinel doesn’t have a major impact on Cheyenne as a majority of the housing will be located in a mancamp in Kimball, Neb., which is in the missile field that is to the east of Cheyenne.

Doyon had told The Electric he didn’t recall saying anything about tire shops.

After this story was published, Doyon emailed The Electric and said he had called Reeves to check his memory.

He said he had met with Reeves during the campaign and made a comment about the number of tire shops coming to Great Falls, but didn’t recall specifically tying it to Sentinel.

He said he welcomes business development in the city for any reason.

The Sentinel Program Integration office at Malmstrom said that there will be two locations for the project in Montana. One of those will be in Great Falls, the other in Lewistown.

Both will be about 50-60 acres of land that has not yet been purchased or leased, with about 2,500 to 3,000 personnel, with their own dining facility, gym, recreation center and be completely contained within a fenced area. Northrop Grumman, the contractor, will provide security, patrol the area and control access, according to Malmstrom.

Sentinel program staff has spoken with the fire and police chiefs in Great Falls and Lewistown, as well as area tribes, about the locations.

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According to the Sentinel office, field work on the weapon system replacement won’t start until 2030 at the earliest.

The Air Force is planning townhall meetings on the Sentinel project in Great Falls and Lewiston in late January but the details haven’t yet been finalized.

The Air Force is also replacing the UH-1N Huey helicopters that are used for missile field security with new Grey Wolf helicopters.

Grey Wolf completes another test

Little told commissioners that Malmstrom is scheduled to receive its first one in March.

In total, the Air Force is procuring up to 84 MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopters, training devices and associated support equipment from Boeing.