Battle over Space Command headquarters pits Alabama against Colorado lawmakers

For years after the first Trump administration moved to Alabama’s designation as the home of the seat of the permanent space command (HQ), a political jacket for the base continues.

Colorado Republicans invite the president to reconsider the decision while Alabama legislators Insist that it will move forward too.

After his confirmation of May 13, new Air Force Secretary Troy Meinka can now expect that a lot of calls from the Capitol hill has pulled him in different directions across the seat.

House Rogers Armed Forces Chairman of the Armed Forces Committee said he had already talked to him about it.

“I look forward to his recommendation to agree with the last two Air Force secretaries and I recommend Huntsville,” he said. “And I expect completely, based on our conversation, it will happen.”

For now, the House of Space Forces – Colorado Springs, Colorado -It is a sense of money already invested in setting the store, according to Rev. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., Whose district covers the current headquarters.

“That would mean savings of two billion dollars to leave it where it is,” Crank told Fox News Digital, pointing to the savings of not having to build a new HQ building.

China accuses us of “turning the space into a war zone” with Trump’s project of the traffic defense of the Golden Dome

President Donald Trump Announced plans to cross the headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, in his first term – but former president Joe Biden This plans followed when he came to duty.

Since its early 2019, Space Command has been active from Peterson Space force Base in Colorado Springs. The command is responsible for military operations in space and will play a major role in the Golden Dome project.

Crank claims that geographically, Colorado makes more sense – also the home of the North Command, and the two will have to coordinate around Trump’s new project of the Zlatna Dome Defense Defense.

“They have to be flawless in their efforts to communicate,” Crank said. “We do not want any delay in the launch and launch of the Golden Dome.”

He claimed that Space Command HQ, located in Cheyenne Mountain, but “one of the safest facilities” in the country. Because in the middle of the US, he added, the enemies make it difficult to attack.

“From the standpoint of survival, it is really important to have it as assets.”

Rogers threw out the complaints of his colleagues in Colorado and claimed that Alabama had conquered Fair and Square.

“They just do their job, you know, they don’t want to see him leaving,” Rogers said. But “they lost two competitions all over the country. I’m not saying that it should be in Hentsville.”

Hegsetth orders to withdraw the overhaul and consolidation of the military aimed at suppressing the possibilities of China and the Golden Dome

He claimed that the command is currently expanding on four to five different buildings, some of which are beyond the base rim.

“None of them were built for classified operations,” he said. “They somehow do it to work.”

Rogers pointed to the recent report by the General Inspector of the Ministry of Defense (IG), which examines Biden’s decision in 2023 not to move the headquarters. This report found that the then Secretary-General of the Power Frank Kendall recommended that Spaceca went to Redstone Arsenal, near Hentsville, Alabama, because the move would save $ 462 million.

However, then Commander Spacec, General James Dickinson, wanted to retain a permanent headquarters in Colorado because of the air forces finding so that the Alabama option would not be operational three to four years. Dickinson and Spaceca officers also worried that more than half of a highly trained civilian staff in Colorado would stop and not move to Alabama for work.

“The management of the leadership envisaged that the loss of civilian staff could happen long before (aviation) predicted and that the USPACECC would not be able to provide investment in the workforce needed to alleviate the impact of that loss on the readiness of the command,” the report said.

However, Rogers claimed, and Colorado had problems with workforce.

“The reason why Secretary Kendall did not agree with them and recommended that this was still moving that more than 300 current jobs at Colorado Springs could not be fulfilled,” he said. “They had to arrange them.”

Crank claimed that the costs of the IG report were wrong because he assumed that Colorado would have to build a new HQ building, which he said would not.

“We don’t need to build a new seat building, “he said.” There is one there. If you say you need to build a new headquarters building, then I think it advises for the benefit of Alabama from a cost perspective for about $ 400 million. ”

“But if you don’t, and we don’t need it there, but you have a seat building, it saves two billion dollars taxpayers,” he said.

The Ig report states that “cannot determine” why Kendall never made a formal decision on the transition of Spacec after the end of the environmental impact at the site of the planned Alabama seat.

Without an official announcement, Spaceca managed to declare complete operational capacity in Colorado, the report said.

Rogers said IG reports proved that the move of Biden Administration was politically, and in April he predicted that Trump would formally appoint Alabama as the House of Space forces within the month.

However, Crank, along with GOP representative 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 willingness to face evolutionary threats,” they wrote in a letter from April 8.

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However, Rogers seems to be sure that the move will go forward.

“There is absolutely no implication on national security to move,” he said.

“It should be in a permanent seat and must be inside the fence. All that will happen in Hentsville.”