Conti Federal Wins $37.7 Million Army Contract for Ellsworth Alert Facility
The Orlando-based builder secured a firm-fixed-price award to design and construct an alert facility at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, with work due by November 2028.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA — Conti Federal Services LLC, an Orlando, Florida-based construction firm, won a $37.7 million Army contract to build an alert facility in South Dakota, as announced on war.gov.
The firm-fixed-price award carries a total cumulative face value of $40 million and covers design-bid-build construction of the facility at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Fiscal 2026 military construction, defense funds of $37.7 million were obligated at the time of the award, according to war.gov. Work will be performed in Ellsworth, South Dakota, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 6, 2028.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Omaha, Nebraska, serves as the contracting activity for the deal, identified as W9128F-26-C-A045. Bids were solicited over the internet, and three offers were received, according to war.gov.
Alert facilities house crews and aircraft kept ready for rapid launch, a core requirement for bases tied to the nation’s bomber and nuclear deterrence mission. Ellsworth Air Force Base sits near Rapid City in western South Dakota and supports the B-1B Lancer fleet, and the installation is slated to become the first main operating base for the B-21 Raider. Construction spending of this scale flows into the local economy through wages, subcontracts and materials during the build.
The award marks the fourth contract for Conti Federal Services LLC in 2026, lifting the company’s total contract value for the year to $337 million, according to war.gov. It ranks as the 53rd Department of Defense contract awarded in Florida during 2026. The deal is not the largest ever handed to the firm, whose record stands at $169.1 million.
This award is modest against the broader Army portfolio for the year. It falls between the 2026 Army portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $9.1 million and maximum of $8.4 billion, according to war.gov. The contract ranked among 14 Department of Defense awards issued nationwide on July 27, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET.
For the average reader, the project translates federal military spending into regional construction jobs and long-term base infrastructure that supports thousands of service members and their families in the Rapid City area. Payroll and supply orders tend to ripple through hotels, restaurants and hardware suppliers near a construction site of this size.
Defense construction awards of this kind have happened before at Ellsworth. The base has drawn repeated federal investment as the Air Force prepares the installation for the B-21 program, and new facilities have followed those preparations over several years.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee the next steps, monitoring design and construction milestones through the estimated completion date of Nov. 6, 2028. No further award decision on this specific project has been announced.
Military readiness construction on the Northern Plains has shaped Ellsworth for generations, as has happened before. The base opened in 1942 as Rapid City Army Air Base and was renamed in 1953 for Brig. Gen. Richard Ellsworth, who died that year in a crash of a B-36 bomber. During the Cold War, the installation hosted Minuteman missile silos across the surrounding grasslands before the missiles were deactivated in the 1990s. Each wave of construction reshaped the base and tied western South Dakota ever closer to the country’s strategic deterrence mission.
This contract represents the 4th contract awarded to Conti Federal Services LLC, in 2026, bringing the company’s total contract value for the year to $337,013,230. It is also the 53rd Department of Defense contract awarded in Florida during 2026. While this is not the largest contract ever awarded to Conti Federal Services LLC, whose record stands at $169,105,820, it is notable within the Army portfolio. Specifically, it falls between the 2026 Army portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $9,051,490 and maximum of $8,402,489,648. Overall, this award was announced among 14 Department of Defense contracts issued nationwide on July 27, 2026.
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