Grand Forks Air Force Base reopens upgraded runway

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Grand Forks Air Force Base’s Runway 18/36 has returned to service after contractors repaved 171,167 square yards of asphalt, completing an upgrade that supports the base’s reconnaissance fleet and shared operations with the nearby GrandSKY unmanned aerial systems park.

Work began in May 2026 and finished on schedule in September, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the office of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer. The project followed a 2020 engineering inspection that found extensive weathering and cracking across the runway’s asphalt.

The runway serves the installation’s RQ-4 Global Hawk fleet, which gathers intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information and relays battlefield signals to analysts for tactical planning.

Cramer, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee, met with base leadership Wednesday to mark the completion of the repairs.

"I joined Senate Armed Services because I knew how important, but how unrecognized Grand Forks is, and how these northern bases are there for a reason", Cramer said. "The runway is the heart of an airbase, so this was the perfect opportunity to advance the current mission and its unlimited potential."

Funding accelerated repairs

Cramer pushed to secure $1.9 million for planning and design in the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. That effort helped place the repairs on the Air Force’s Facilities Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization Construction Tasking Order.

Without legislative intervention, the project would not have been eligible for prioritization under the Future Years Defense Program until fiscal year 2028, according to the release. That delay would have risked sidelining the base’s Global Hawks and other airborne units.

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven emphasized the runway’s role in supporting both the base and GrandSKY.

"The agreement we secured in 2016 for GrandSKY to jointly use the Grand Forks Air Force Base runway provides a strong foundation for our UAS ecosystem, supporting a set of activities that you cannot find anywhere else in the nation. So, getting this project done quickly needed to happen. By providing the full, upfront funding of $20 million for the project, we were able to get the Air Force to prioritize its construction and limit disruption to the base and GrandSKY’s operations. That means certainty for our ongoing initiatives like Project ULTRA, Sky Range and the Point Defense Battle Lab, while ensuring the runway is capable of supporting future and growing UAS operations at both the base and the business and technology park", Hoeven said.

The completed work caps a multi-year effort by Cramer to draw attention to the base’s infrastructure needs. He brought then-Air Combat Command Commander Gen. Wilsbach to inspect the airfield in 2024 and followed that visit with an on-site runway assessment with then-Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife in 2025.

Read the source