Governor Larry Rhoden tooted South Dakota’s corporate-welfare horn yesterday, announcing that Northrop Grumman will get $2 million in free public money to build an office in Rapid City:
The latest effort came to fruition Wednesday with the announcement that Virginia-based defense contractor Northrop Grumman — which is developing B-21s for the Air Force — will establish an office in an $18 million building to be constructed in Rapid City, less than 10 miles west of the base.
Elevate Rapid City, a local economic development partnership, will build the facility on undeveloped land next to its David Lust Accelerator Building, a business incubation complex in eastern downtown Rapid City’s Innovation District. The accelerator building hosted Wednesday’s announcement.
The announcement did not include an estimate of the number of jobs Northrop Grumman will bring to the city, but an executive said the company has scheduled about 50 interviews for the “first wave” of future employees. The combined number of the company’s employees at Ellsworth and the Rapid City office could ultimately number in the “hundreds,” said Elevate CEO Jack Valentine in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight. Elevate will work to recruit additional tenants to the facility.
The state and the Ellsworth Development Authority will each contribute $1 million to help Elevate with the project [Seth Tupper, “State to Help Fund Rapid City Office Building for Defense Contractor Northrop Grumman,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.09.23].
Northrop Grumman made $41.954 billion in sales last year, 84% of which came from U.S. government contracts—i.e., over $35 billion from taxpayers. In 2025, Northrop Grumman thus reaped $2 million in government cash every 30 minutes. But in Larry Rhoden’s mind, the government can never be too involved in the corporate economy.
At the end of 2025, Northrop Grumman had $4.4 billion in cash. Asking NG to cover the $2 million that Rhoden is shifting to taxpayers in one-time building expenses would be like asking the typical American household, with $8,000 in the bank, to pay $3.64, which South Dakota asks households to pay pretty much every time they visit Hy-Vee Larry Rhoden thinks average South Dakota households can take even more of that burden, but multi-billion-dollar corporations like Northrop Grumman can’t bear a proportionate burden and do business in South Dakota.
“The U.S. Air Force has officially postponed the retirement of its B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit bomber fleets, extending their operational lives until at least 2037. While the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider remains on track to begin initial deliveries to Ellsworth Air Force Base in 2027, low-rate initial production yields only about seven aircraft per year. Keeping the older bombers operational ensures the U.S. maintains its long-range strike capacity while the new fleet slowly scales up.”