South Dakota National Guard leader urges community support for new fighter jets in Sioux Falls

SIOUX FALLS – The adjutant general of the South Dakota National Guard encouraged business leaders in Sioux Falls to make a “full-throated” case for bringing newer Air Force jets to the city.

The South Dakota Air National Guard’s 114th Fighter Wing is located at Joe Foss Field, near the Sioux Falls Regional Airport. There are 450 full-time and 650 part-time staff stationed there, maintaining and operating a squadron of 18 permanently assigned aircraft.

Those aircraft are F-16 fighter jets, but South Dakota officials want to see those jets,first built in 1988 and 1989, replaced with F-35s.

The craft have been upgraded and are well-maintained, Major General Mark Morrell told the Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club during its Monday luncheon at the Military Heritage Alliance, but “you can only bolt so much stuff on them.”

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“We’re long overdue for investment,” Morrell said.

The F-35s began rolling out more than a decade ago and are already in service nationally and globally. The Air Force is now in the process of choosing two of the last locations for them from a list of nine possible locations, Morrell said. An initial winnowing of those options will come in December, with a final decision in spring.

The other states in the running are Minnesota, Ohio, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Colorado, Indiana, South Carolina. Washington, D.C. is also a contender

When asked by Rotarian Steve Watson what might happen if South Dakota isn’t selected, Morrell said he doesn’t know exactly, but that the thought makes him “a little bit nervous” about the future of Joe Foss Field Air National Guard Station.

“I’ll say that we’ll do what we have always done, and that’s we’ll deliver combat readiness with the platforms we have with excellence, every single day, until those platforms are no longer viable,” Morrell said.

Selling points for South Dakota

South Dakota has a lot going for it, Morrell said. Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City will soon be home to the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, an aircraft typically escorted by a fighter jet. Morrell said coordination between the two programs would weigh in the state’s favor.

He also pointed to the engineering programs at South Dakota State University and South Dakota Mines, as well as cybersecurity and cyberdefense programs at Dakota State University as valuable sources of local expertise for an F-35 squadron. 

Gov. Larry Rhoden’s establishment of an infrastructure and resilience task force in 2025 and of the South Dakota Defense Institute this summer offer proof, Morrell said, that the state can be “nimble” in responding to military needs.
The task force is meant to “strengthen South Dakota’s resilience by identifying infrastructure vulnerabilities, recommending strategies to improve preparedness, and fostering collaboration among public and private partners,” according to Rhoden’s office. The Rapid City-based defense institute was launched as a “centralized hub for defense collaboration, connecting industry, government, and education to strengthen South Dakota’s contributions” to military  and security operations, according to a Rhoden press release.

The task force and institute each spent money on defense projects in 2026 from the Future Fund, a pool of dollars paid for through unemployment taxes, to support economic development projects in the state. The institute’s founding in April was supported by $6 million from the Future Fund.

Last week, Rhoden announced that the state would contribute $1 million from the fund to support the construction of an office building near Ellsworth for Northrup Grumman, the defense contractor building the B-21s.

Community support to play a role

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The Sioux Falls business community has been a solid supporter of the 114th Fighter Wing, according to Mitch Rave, public policy vice president for the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce.

Since 2007, Rave said, the chamber has had a group of business and nonprofit leaders that meets monthly to address the needs of service members, and the business community has long supported the state’s National Guard.

The collection of leaders works on“pushing one rock up the hill to get something done,” for veterans and the military community, Rave said.

“And right now that’s the pursuit of this new fighter,” he said.

Rave said his local chamber and the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and Industry are collecting supportive letters to submit to the state’s Congressional delegation to help them push for the F-35 in Sioux Falls. Rave flashed a QR code on the screen during the talk that linked to a form letter for Rotarians to use, encouraging them to personalize the letters and add anecdotes about business leaders’ experiences with veterans and specific ways they can support the Air Force in the event Sioux Falls is chosen as an F-35 location.

Morrell, who is the adjutant general for the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard in Sioux Falls, said he needs the community to make a strong case to Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink. The secretary is a Lemmon native, and Morrell said he hopes the South Dakota native can be convinced that his home state is the right place for the new fighter jets.

If South Dakota makes it through the first round in the selection process in December, Morrell said, he’d hope that the state can keep up the drumbeat through the spring to earn a final selection. 

“We’ve got to give him a really well-reasoned argument and a full-throated argument from the entire South Dakota citizenry and business community about why he should choose us, and just instantly validate that it was the correct decision,” Morrell said. “That’s what we’re after here.”