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Army Corps awards $74.9 million for Whiteman's first B-21 building
Whiteman Air Force Base now has its first building specific to the B-21, a radio-frequency hangar sized for one aircraft at a time, and the same contractor already has the equivalent job under way at Ellsworth.
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What happened
- Conti Kight JV, a partnership of Conti Federal Services and Kight Construction Group, won a $74.9 million firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City District.
- The award brings B-21 specialized infrastructure to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri for the first time, at the second planned operating base for the bomber behind Ellsworth in South Dakota.
- The hangar centres on a single B-21 aircraft position and adds back shops, material storage, administrative areas and work areas for maintenance and mission preparation.
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Why it matters
- constraint However many Raiders Whiteman ends up holding, their radio frequency and measurement work queues through one bay, and it can only happen on base once the building is finished.
- cost The fixed price hands material and labour cost growth through 2029 to Conti Kight JV; the Kansas City District pays $74.9 million whatever the build ends up costing.
- capability Trades and suppliers now have funded B-21 work in a second state to bid into, under a joint venture whose senior partner has already built this exact facility type once.
- precedent With the Ellsworth RF hangar and the Whiteman one under the same firm, a repeat of that design becomes the obvious starting point for any further B-21 site.
The technician who needs a radio-frequency check on a low-observable airframe at Whiteman will wait for whatever is in the bay ahead of it. Interesting Engineering's account of the award does not say how many Raiders Whiteman will host or when the first one arrives [16]. The base is buying one bay.
Measurement work at Whiteman will run one airframe at a time, whatever the fleet size ends up being [17], and that single position sets the throughput. Radio frequency testing is how technicians examine systems that operate within the electromagnetic spectrum [6], and the specialisation exists because the aircraft is built around low observability [5].
Construction is scheduled to finish in September 2029 [9]. That is the date to plan against, and the price is fixed at $74.9 million [1], so Conti Kight JV absorbs cost growth between signature and handover [14].
Conti Federal is already building a similar RF hangar at Ellsworth [10], the base currently leading B-21 basing [8]. Suppliers should note the overlap: one firm now holds the RF hangar work at both named operating bases [11]. Interesting Engineering credits Kight Construction with federal construction experience and familiarity with the regional market around Whiteman [12].
Conti Federal's B-21 work already includes an alert facility, a flight simulator facility, a phase maintenance hangar, fuel systems maintenance infrastructure, Dock 81, environmental protection shelters and a weapons loader training facility [13]. An RF hangar is one line item on that list. Whiteman, which operates the B-2 [7], has one of those categories under contract.
The B-21's physical footprint is expanding beyond Ellsworth [15], and program language treats a second base as a second capacity centre. On the ground that expansion currently looks like a single specialised building with a 2029 date on it [9].
For a supplier's own site list, the test is two numbers written next to each base: aircraft positions, and the completion month. A site with a signed award and a late-2029 finish is a 2028 hiring problem. On that test Whiteman scores one position and September 2029 [4][9].
What to watch
- Whether the Kansas City District awards Whiteman's other B-21 facility types, and to whom.
- Any published bed-down schedule or aircraft count for Whiteman that would test the September 2029 finish.
- A third operating base receiving its first B-21 construction award.