As the Air Force Retires Some Global Hawks, Local Leaders Hope to Make Grand Forks a Hub to Repurpose Them

Aug. 30—Grand Sky, the unmanned aerial systems research and business park west of the city, appears to be in an advantageous position for growth, following the announcement of an expanded mission at Grand Forks Air Force Base.

On Aug. 26, the U.S. Air Force announced it had selected GFAFB to train crews for a future intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission here. The commitment to GFAFB, has some in the unmanned aerial systems ecosystem excited about the potential of repurposing retired military aircraft for other uses.

"What I heard was a jackpot for Grand Forks Air Force Base and the greater Grand Forks community, in the Block 40 mission staying, a new mission coming to the base and repurposing of Global Hawks over at Grand sky," said Tom Swoyer Jr., president of Grand Sky Development Co. "That's just jobs all over the place for the community, and that's great, great news."

The Air Force recently retired its fleet of four Block 20 Global Hawk drones, the oldest in service, and efforts are being made to transfer them to Northrop Grumman, at Grand Sky. Those aircraft will then be used for hypersonic testing, once they have been refurbished. Officials at Northrop have yet to make an announcement about the repurposing program, citing the need to have a formal agreement in place.

It's the upcoming retirement of the Block 30 Global Hawks, a much larger fleet, that has Swoyer hopeful for a steady stream of multi-million dollar unmanned platforms coming to Grand Forks.

According to last week's announcement by the Air Force, retired aircraft can be transferred to either another military or federal agency. Swoyer said NASA has two Global Hawk drones they have used to fly into hurricanes. Another Global Hawk was used to monitor the site of a nuclear incident in Fukushima, Japan, following an earthquake that caused a tsunami which disabled a nuclear power plant there in 2011.

There are about 20 Block 30 Global Hawk drones, putting Grand Sky in a position to capitalize on the moment with long-term work, should they be diverted to Grand Forks.

"I'm hopeful that a big chunk, if not all of the Block 30s can also be repurposed to other non-direct military uses, and all that work can be done at Grand Sky," Swoyer said. "That's a long, long, long mission."

Mayor Brandon Bochenski said he can't think of a better place for those aircraft to be repurposed. He's hopeful some of them can be relocated here, not only for the work and extra jobs they would bring, but because it raises the profile of the drone business park. That, along with the Air Force's renewed commitment to GFAFB, makes the region an attractive location to any entity involved in unmanned aerial systems.

"This is the ISR base of the future, so if there's anybody that is interested, has products, has any commercialization in that realm, it makes sense to be where it's happening," Bochenski said. "Right now, or at least going into the future, that's going to be happening in Grand Forks, so I think it's an easy sell."

Not much is known about the Air Force's new mission at GFAFB at the moment, other than it revolves around training crews for future ISR missions, as the Air Force looks to restructure its capabilities to meet national defense needs. Plans are in place for construction at GFAFB to begin next year and run through 2026, to support the 319th Reconnaissance Wing's operational needs.

Unmanned ISR aircraft for the Air Force are rolled out in "blocks," with each block having different intelligence capabilities. The Block 20 series was retired recently, and the Block 30s, controlled at GFAFB, will be phased out. GFAFB will continue to operate about nine Block 40 Global Hawks, the latest models, through the end of the decade.

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