Battle over Space Command HQ location heats up as lawmakers press new Air Force secretary

Yahoo

6 days ago

Years after the first Trump administration moved to designate Alabama as the home of a permanent Space Command headquarters (HQ), the political tug-of-war for the base continues.
Colorado Republicans are urging the president to rethink the decision while Alabama lawmakers insist it will and should move forward.
After his May 13 confirmation, new Air Force Secretary Troy Meink can now expect a lot of calls from Capitol Hill pulling him in different directions over the HQ.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said he had already discussed the matter with him.
"I look forward to his recommendation that he concur with the last two secretaries of the Air Force and recommend to Huntsville," he said. "And I fully expect, based on our conversation, that's going to be what happens."
The Space Force's home for the time being — Colorado Springs, Colorado — makes sense from the money that has already been invested in setting up shop there, according to Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., whose district encompasses the current HQ.
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"It would mean $2 billion in savings to leave it where it is," Crank told Fox News Digital, pointing to savings from not having to build a new HQ building.
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President Donald Trump announced plans to move headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama, in his first term — but former President Joe Biden undid those plans when he came into office.
Space Command has operated out of Peterson Space Force base in Colorado Springs since its 2019 inception. The command is responsible for military operations in space and will play a major role in the Golden Dome project.
Crank argues that geographically, Colorado makes more sense — it is also home to Northern Command, and the two will need to coordinate over Trump's new Golden Dome missile defense project.
"They've got to be seamless in their efforts to communicate," said Crank. "We don't want any delay in getting Golden Dome up and running."
He argued that Space Command HQ, nestled into Cheyenne Mountain, is already "one of the most secure facilities" in the country. Being in the middle of the U.S., he added, makes it harder for enemies to attack.
"From the standpoint of survivability, having that as an asset right there as well is, is really important."
Rogers brushed off the complaints from his Colorado counterparts and argued Alabama had won fair and square.
"They're just doing their job, you know, they don't want to see it leave," said Rogers. But, "they lost two nationwide competitions. It's not me saying it should be in Huntsville."
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He argued that right now, the command is spread out across four to five different buildings, some of which are outside the base perimeter.
"None of them were built for classified operations," he said. "They just kind of make it work."
Rogers pointed to a recent Defense Department inspector general (IG) report examining Biden's 2023 decision not to move the headquarters. That report found that then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall recommended that SPACECOM go to Redstone Arsenal, near Huntsville, Alabama, because the move would save $462 million.
However, then SPACECOM Commander, Gen. James Dickinson, wanted to keep the permanent HQ in Colorado due to Air Force findings that the Alabama option would not be operational for three to four years. Dickinson and SPACECOM officers also worried that more than half of the highly trained civilian staff in Colorado would quit rather than move to Alabama for the job.
"USSPACECOM leadership anticipated that the loss of civilian personnel might occur much sooner than (the Air Force) predicated and that USSPACECOM would be unable to secure the manpower investments needed to mitigate the impact of that loss on the command's readiness," the report states.
However, Rogers argued, Colorado has had manpower issues as well.
"The reason why Secretary Kendall didn't concur with them and recommended that it still be moved was that over 300 of the current jobs in Colorado Springs couldn't be filled," he said. "They had to contract them out."
Crank argued that the cost findings in the IG report were flawed because it assumed Colorado would have to build a new HQ building, which he says it would not.
"We don't need to build a new headquarters building," he said. "There is one there. If you say you need to build a new headquarters building, then I think it tips it in the favor of Alabama from a cost perspective by about $400 million."
"But if you don't do that, and we don't need it, already have a headquarters building there, it saves the taxpayers $2 billion," he said.
The IG report said it "could not determine" why Kendall never made a formal announcement decision for the SPACECOM transition after the September 2022 completion of an environmental impact assessment of the planned headquarters site in Alabama.
Without a formal announcement, SPACECOM was able to declare full operational capability in Colorado, the report said.
Rogers said the IG report proved the Biden administration's move was political, and predicted in April that Trump would formally name Alabama as the home of the Space Force within the month.
However, Crank, along with GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd, wrote to Trump and warned him that the move would affect readiness.
"Moving the command would disrupt these established capabilities and partnerships, further diminishing our preparedness to face evolving threats," they wrote in a letter dated April 8.
However, Rogers seems confident the move will go forward.
"There's absolutely no national security implications for moving it," he said.
"It needs to be in a permanent headquarters, and it needs to be inside the fence. All that's going to happen in Huntsville."Original article source: Battle over Space Command HQ location heats up as lawmakers press new Air Force secretary