Conti Federal Services LLC received a $36,337,321 design-bid-build construction contract on May 12, 2026, to build the B-21 Raider Advanced Development Division Flight Simulator Phase 2 facility at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. The project is funded with fiscal 2026 military construction, defense-wide appropriations, and is scheduled for completion by July 21, 2028.
B-21 Raider and Ellsworth’s Training Role
The B-21 Raider is the Air Force’s next-generation strategic stealth bomber, currently entering the early stages of fielding after years of development under Northrop Grumman. Ellsworth Air Force Base, located near Rapid City, South Dakota, was selected as the first operational base for the B-21 and is receiving sustained investment in both aircraft maintenance infrastructure and aircrew training facilities to support the new bomber’s arrival. Flight simulators are essential elements of that training infrastructure, allowing crews to practice mission profiles, emergency procedures, and systems management in a controlled environment before flying the actual aircraft and enabling training scenarios that cannot safely or practically be conducted in the air, including low-probability, high-consequence emergency procedures that require practiced responses.
The Advanced Development Division Flight Simulator facility designated in this contract is tied to the developmental testing and tactics development role that Ellsworth will play as the B-21 progresses through its fielding sequence. Early operational bases for advanced aircraft typically host simulator facilities that support not only initial aircrew qualification but also the ongoing development of tactics, techniques, and procedures that evolve as operational experience with a new platform accumulates over its first years of fielding. The Phase 2 designation indicates that this construction award follows an earlier facility investment, expanding the simulator infrastructure at Ellsworth as the number of B-21 crews moving through training grows with the aircraft delivery schedule.
Design-Bid-Build Approach
The contract was awarded as a design-bid-build project, the traditional construction procurement method in which the government completes facility design before soliciting construction bids. Under this approach, Conti Federal is responsible for building a facility whose technical specifications have already been established, rather than developing the design concurrently with construction under a design-build contract. Design-bid-build is commonly used for specialized military facilities where the government requires precise control over technical specifications before committing to a contractor, particularly when the structure must meet stringent classified systems requirements, electromagnetic compatibility standards, or specific structural specifications that are difficult to define through performance-based design-build language alone.
Simulator facilities for advanced aircraft like the B-21 involve specialized construction requirements that distinguish them from general administrative or support buildings. The structure must accommodate motion platform systems and their mechanical base infrastructure, provide acoustic isolation sufficient to prevent external vibration from compromising simulator fidelity, incorporate electromagnetic compatibility measures protecting sensitive avionics simulation equipment, and include the classified systems infrastructure required to run simulations that replicate the B-21’s actual mission systems at the appropriate classification level. These requirements justify the $36.3 million construction cost for a facility whose footprint is far smaller than what that figure might imply for conventional commercial construction.
Military Construction Funding
The project is funded from fiscal 2026 military construction, defense-wide appropriations. Military construction funds are appropriated separately from the operations and maintenance accounts that cover most day-to-day base activities, and they require specific congressional authorization before DoD can obligate them on specific projects. Defense-wide military construction, as opposed to service-specific funding, is used for facilities that support programs managed across multiple services or under the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The B-21 program’s status as a strategic nuclear delivery asset with joint operational implications fits within the defense-wide funding category.
The July 2028 completion date provides approximately 26 months of construction time from the May 2026 award. For a facility of this technical complexity, that schedule is consistent with comparable high-specification military construction projects requiring specialized mechanical, electrical, classified systems, and acoustic engineering work beyond standard general construction. Ellsworth has received multiple construction investments connected to the B-21 program, and the simulator facility adds a critical training capability that the base will need to sustain and grow its B-21 mission as the fleet expands from initial operational capability toward full operational capability across the Air Force’s bomber inventory.
Simulator Training Across the Aircrew Lifecycle
The simulator's training role extends beyond initial aircrew qualification to encompass the full lifecycle of B-21 crew training throughout the aircraft's operational service. Experienced crews use the simulator to maintain currency on emergency procedures, practice mission profiles in degraded system configurations, and rehearse specific scenarios before actual flights. Instructors can introduce simulated malfunctions at any point during a scenario to evaluate crew responses and verify that emergency procedures are being executed correctly — a training capability that cannot be safely replicated in actual flight without creating genuine aircraft risk. The fidelity of modern flight simulators, which replicate actual avionics displays, control response characteristics, and systems behavior with high accuracy, allows this training to serve as a meaningful measure of crew preparedness rather than a purely academic exercise.
The B-21's classified nature adds a layer of complexity to simulator facility construction that is absent from training infrastructure for conventional unclassified aircraft. The facility must host classified simulation software that replicates the B-21's actual mission systems, electronic warfare capabilities, and weapons employment behavior at the appropriate security classification level. Achieving that requires not only secure physical construction but also accredited classified information networks, reinforced physical security measures, access control systems, and the electromagnetic emanations controls that the Defense Department mandates before classified simulation software can legally operate within a given space. The design-bid-build approach, with the government controlling the design specifications that incorporate these classified requirements, ensures the facility meets all required standards before Conti Federal begins the structural construction work.
Contractors
Conti Federal Services LLC is the prime construction contractor for this project. The contract value is $36,337,321 with work located at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. Completion is scheduled for July 21, 2028. Funding is from fiscal 2026 military construction, defense-wide appropriations. The DoD contract announcement was published May 12, 2026.
