Minnesota Guard seeks $3.5M in design funds for Duluth hangar, touts cyber response role and tuition benefit

The Department of Military Affairs told the Minnesota Senate Subcommittee on Veterans on March 9, 2026 that a $3.5 million state design appropriation would substantially improve the chance of winning federal Military Construction funding to replace aging hangars at the Duluth fighter wing and preserve the unit’s flying mission.

"The design for the project is 3.5 million dollars," said Scott Roeder, the department’s executive director, who described three hangars built decades ago that suffer water infiltration, inadequate lightning protection and a permanent U.S. Air Force waiver for wing‑tip clearance. Roeder said the design funding would boost the project’s federal scoring and could make much of the construction eligible for federal dollars.

Roeder also asked the subcommittee to approve a $2.5 million asset preservation request to address maintenance needs across roughly 60 Army National Guard facilities in Minnesota. He said the department receives a $10 million annual state maintenance appropriation, of which about $1.8 million is designated for air wings, leaving roughly $8.2 million for Army National Guard projects. "Every dollar the state appropriates for readiness centers is matched by the federal government," Roeder told the committee.

A member of the Guard described how state education benefits factor into retention. "The state tuition reimbursement program has saved me thousands of dollars of my projected student loan debt," Lieutenant Nicole Ribi Strands said, describing three years of undergraduate support and one year of professional‑school assistance that helped her pursue veterinary and public‑health training while serving.

Committee members also heard an extended briefing on the Guard’s cyber capability. First Lieutenant Nick, the Guard’s C3 planner, explained that Minnesota has a coordination cell (C3), a cyber protection team and a defensive cyber operations element; those teams support state and local responses under a process that requires authorization and, when required, an executive order from the governor. He described the July 2025 Saint Paul ransomware activation, when Guard teams were placed on state active duty and provided surge support to the city.

"They were able to reimage about 500 computers," the presenter said, and Guard cyber operators helped rebuild network configurations and coordinate across city, state and federal partners. The department emphasized that the city remained in command of its incident and that Guard support is intended as surge capacity to shorten recovery timelines.

The department closed by urging lawmakers to consider the leverage that modest state investments can produce when matched with federal construction dollars and by offering to provide more technical details to inform appropriation decisions. The subcommittee did not take final action on bonding requests but heard the department’s case in detail.