Ellsworth will continue to support AFGSC tasking out of Grand Forks AFB during the roughly 10-month relocation to allow for runway construction, following which the bombers and Airmen will return to their home base.
The last of the 17 B-1B Lancer bomber aircrafts from Ellsworth AFB (Air Force Base), South Dakota, assigned to the 28th Bomb Wing (28th BW), flew to Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, on Jan. 22, 2025. The aircraft moved as part of a 10-month temporary relocation as Ellsworth undergoes runway works to prepare for the arrival of the new B-21 Raider.
Media released on the DVIDS network suggests that two bombers took from Ellsworth for Grand Forks as part of the last cell to be moved. Around 800 support personnel, munitions and support equipment also moved to the 319th Reconnaissance Wing at Grand Forks AFB, said a statement from Ellsworth AFB.
“The temporary relocation allows Ellsworth to complete the runway project as part of the base’s preparations for the aircraft’s arrival,” the statement further said. It added that “Ellsworth will continue to support Air Force Global Strike Command tasking out of Grand Forks AFB during the approximate 10-month relocation,” and the “bombers and Airmen will return to Ellsworth once the runway construction project is complete.”
🇺🇲 A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer, front, taxis toward the runway at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., Jan. 22, 2025.
(📸/U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Dylan Maher) pic.twitter.com/jhRHEopjJZ
— Guy Plopsky (@GuyPlopsky) January 24, 2025
Ellsworth was selected as the first B-21 Raider base after it cleared an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report in 2021. Whiteman AFB, Texas, and Dyess AFB, Missouri, have been designated as the B-21 Raider’s second and third MOBs (Main Operating Bases), respectively, in mid-Sep. 2024. Ellsworth will construct or renovate more than 20 major facilities before the B-21’s arrival, with works expected to be completed between 2025 and 2026.
A major work at Ellsworth are the multi-million dollar contracts to Conti Federal to set up special infrastructure for the B-21 Raider. These include building a Fuel-Cell Hangar, Fuel Systems Maintenance Dock, Radio Frequency Hangar, Weapons Loader Training Facility, and a Phase Maintenance Hangar.
See a B-1 bomber’s majestic sunset fly-by en route to Grand Forks Air Force Base#b1bomber #airforce #military pic.twitter.com/ffv4PXiFhL
— Military Times (@MilitaryTimes) January 22, 2025
Lancers temporarily back at Grand Forks AFB
Relocation to Grand Forks AFB had begun early in Dec. 2024, when the first B-1B Lancers from Ellsworth AFB’s 37th BS (part of 28th BW) started flying to Grand Forks AFB to be temporarily relocated there. Interestingly, as The Aviationist had reported in Aug. 2024, Grand Forks AFB is in fact again hosting the B-1B Lancer 30 years after the type left the base and the former 319th Bomb Wing first transitioned from the bomber to the air refueling mission.
Grand Forks AFB was set up in the 1950s as an Air Defense Command’s base, but shortly thereafter became part of the Strategic Air Command and also received the B-52. In 1987, the 319th Bomb Wing transitioned from the B-52H Stratofortress to the B-1B. In 1994 the bombers were relocated and the wing became an Air Refueling Wing first and later a Reconnaissance Wing. That first B-1B from the 37th BS which flew to Grand Forks AFB on Dec. 4, 2024, remained there “to help prepare the maintenance operations before the full fleet arrives early next year [2025].”
By Dec. 18, 2024, three B-1Bs from the 28th BW had been flown, with Jan. 10, 2025 seeing another B-1B from the 28th BW landing at Grand Forks AFB. This made it the fourth scheduled aircraft to arrive there for the temporary relocation. Flights to Grand Forks presumably continued in the intervening period until Jan. 22.
B-1Bs and inter-base cooperation
Captions have described the B-1B bomber as the “backbone of America’s global precision strike force” that “operates in all types of weather conditions and any environment.” The caption also reminded that “B-1B Lancers carry the largest payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory.”
A photo caption said that the “fact that the 28th Bomb Wing can land bombers at another base and continue operations is demonstrative of the flexibility and adaptability of our bomber force and our Aimen.” Flying from non-home air bases requires becoming familiar with that location’s runway, infrastructure and hangar layouts, dictating set operational and logistical procedures.
A hot-pit refueling of a Ellsworth AFB’s B-1B Lancer from the 28th BW at Grand Forks on Oct. 2024, the first such procedure in 30 years since the Lancers had moved out from the latter, was with this very intent in mind. The latest relocation to Grand Forks also “facilitates agile combat employment training capabilities.”
Until the relocation commenced, Ellsworth AFB also held its “first full-scale readiness” exercise in over a decade on Sep. 20, 2024, in a two-week, two-phase exercise called Raider Reach. A highlight of the exercise was the 28th BW’s B-1B Lancer bombers practicing flying long-range global strike missions daily in the drills’ second phase.
