The United States Space Command (SPACECOM), the unified combatant command of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) that is responsible for military operations in outer space, will remain headquartered in Colorado after the current administration overturned the decision to move it to Alabama.
That effectively ends months of deliberations, even as an Alabama lawmaker has vowed to continue the push to see the HQ moved to Huntsville.
Lawmakers from both Colorado and Alabama have spent months making their case for why the SPACECOM headquarters should be in their respective states, and each has accused the other of playing politics on the future of the four-star command – which was re-established in 2019.
“This fight is far from over,” warned Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Temporary HQ – Now Permanent?
SPACECOM was given a temporary HQ in the Rocky Mountain State at Peterson Space Force Base (SFB) while the United States Air Force evaluated a list of possible permanent sites.
SPACECOM, one of the U.S. military’s 11 unified combatant commands, is separate from the United States Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military that is also the service responsible for carrying out the actions of the command. However, the Space Operations Command (SpOC) – the United States Space Force’s space operations, cyber operations, and intelligence field command – is currently headquartered at Peterson SFB, Colorado Springs. The city is also home to the Air Force Academy, which now graduates Space Force guardians.
To the Colorado delegation of lawmakers, those facts made it seem to be the ideal location for the command. However, the Redstone Arsenal was selected as the preferred final location for the command, edging out Kirtland Air Force Base, Offutt Air Force Base, Joint Base San Antonio, and Patrick Space Force Base, as well as its interim location at Peterson.
Soon after that announcement, there was pushback from Colorado lawmakers. After President Biden took office in 2021, Colorado’s nine-member congressional delegation, made up of three Republicans and six Democrats at the time, sent a letter to the commander-in-chief to request a probe into the decision.
After a more than two-year review, the decision was made to keep the HQ in Colorado. On Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that the president notified the (DoD) that he had made the decision, after speaking with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and weighing the input of senior military leaders.
“Locating Headquarters U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs ultimately ensures peak readiness in the space domain for our nation during a critical period,” Ryder said in a statement. “It will also enable the command to most effectively plan, execute and integrate military spacepower into multi-domain global operations in order to deter aggression and defend national interests.”
According to the Associated Press, which first reported the news, the White House believed that keeping the command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness that the move would cause, particularly as the U.S. races to compete with China and Russia in the space domain. Moreover, the current administration said that maintaining stability will help the military be better able to respond in space over the next decade.
Those factors apparently outweighed what the White House believed would be only minor benefits of moving SPACECOM to Alabama.
Colorado lawmakers were quick to show their support for the decision.
“For two and a half years we’ve known any objective analysis of this basing decision would reach the same conclusion we did, that Peterson Space Force Base is the best home for Space Command,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said via a statement. “Most importantly, this decision firmly rejects the idea that politics — instead of national security — should determine basing decisions central to our national security.”
Playing Politics?
Despite Hickenlooper’s comments that this was about national security, some in Alabama still see it otherwise, as Huntsville had scored higher than Colorado Springs in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of potential locations. In addition, Huntsville is home to the United States Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, while it has historic ties to space as it was home to some of the earliest missiles used in the nation’s space programs, including the Saturn V rocket.
Alabama’s Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville – who has been outspoken in urging the Pentagon to make the move – claimed politics were very much in play.
House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in a statement, “I will continue this investigation to see if they intentionally misled the Armed Services Committee on their deliberate taxpayer-funded manipulation of the selection process.”
Rogers has vowed the fight is far from over, but at this point at least, the DoD may see it otherwise.
