Missouri airbase adds weapons storage building for incoming B-21s

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded K & K Industries a $13.6 million contract to build a weapons release system storage facility at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, part of the base’s preparation to host the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. The Windsor, Missouri-based company’s firm-fixed-price award brings the project’s total value to $14,993,485.

Three companies bid on the project. Work will be done in Knob Noster, Missouri, the town adjacent to Whiteman, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2028. The Army obligated $13,649,923 in fiscal 2026 military construction funds at the time of the award. The Kansas City District of the Army Corps of Engineers is managing the contract.

The facility will give Whiteman dedicated space to store and support armament-related equipment for the B-21, according to Air Force documentation on the project. It includes a new weapons and release-system shop covering about 1,580 square meters (17,000 square feet), along with alterations to roughly 674 square meters (7,250 square feet) of existing space, plus utilities, communications, access routes and site preparation work. Air Force documents describing the project say Whiteman currently lacks enough room to handle the munitions-related parts and equipment expected to arrive with the bomber.

Whiteman is home to the Air Force’s current B-2 Spirit fleet and is set to become the second operational base for the B-21, after Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The Air Force has said the new facility will let the base keep running B-2 operations without competing for existing infrastructure as B-21 support work ramps up.

This is one of roughly 30 military construction projects planned at Whiteman for the B-21 program, together valued at about $900 million, according to slides the Army Corps of Engineers presented at an industry day in September. Those projects include a dormitory and a radio-frequency hangar in addition to the weapons storage facility, with a weapons load trainer facility and a sustainment complex planned for awards in fiscal 2027.

The Army Corps separately awarded Conti Federal Services $74.8 million this month to build a radio-frequency and measurements hangar at Whiteman, a facility designed to check whether the B-21’s low-observable coatings and stealth characteristics hold up after maintenance or repairs. That hangar is scheduled for completion in September 2029.