US Space Command moving from CO to AL, why?

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Brad W

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U.S. Space Command Relocating to Alabama

The U.S. Space Command will relocate from Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
www.flyingmag.com www.flyingmag.com

I just came across this article.
Typical for journalism nowadays....or maybe it's just that my reading skills are declining...but I did not see any mention of a reason for the move?

Do any of you know?
 
I have no inside information wrt this move. Sometimes a relocation is to take advantage of location location location.
 
The USAF stated it's preference for Alabama in the late 20teens. https://www.gao.gov/assets/880/879909.pdf
Current POTUS - Colorado has mail-in voting (this is a quote from his live announcement in the Oval Office)
I recommend reading the more detailed articles from sources other than Flying (which may be using AI for more and more "reporting"). For example, even Al Jazeera's reported on it.

Draw your own conclusions.

Around here, what's absolutely hilarious is Boebert going against Trump for the first time in her life by arguing against the move. Any other comments must be offline.
 
Politics aside, the Redstone Arsenal:
Note all of Redstone Arsenal's tenant organizations, commands and units. Seems like a good place for military integration. NASA has its Marshall Spaceflight Center there.
en.wikipedia.org

Redstone Arsenal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Huntsville hosts facilities of Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin (Leidos), Rocketdyne, Raytheon, L3, GE Aviation, ...
Colorado Springs is not exactly a hotbed of space and aerospace development.

Doc Holliday said:
Better BBQ. Better WX. Plus southern hospitality.

What’s not to like?
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All true, but a tad more humidity. More limited recreational opportunities. Boring, flat landscape.
Frankly, and politics aside, I'd rather live in Colorado Springs than Huntsville. Just saying.
I would miss salt water in both places.
 
Domenick said:
Politics aside, the Redstone Arsenal:
Note all of Redstone Arsenal's tenant organizations, commands and units. Seems like a good place for military integration. NASA has its Marshall Spaceflight Center there.
en.wikipedia.org

Redstone Arsenal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Huntsville hosts facilities of Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin (Leidos), Rocketdyne, Raytheon, L3, GE Aviation, ...
Colorado Springs is not exactly a hotbed of space and aerospace development.
Click to expand...
Uh....Lockheed Space, Northrop and Raytheon have major research & dev offices 45 miles up the road in Denver. Every one of the companies listed other than GE Aviation have offices in the Springs. Rocketdyne is a subsidiar of L3/Harris. Raytheon has manufacturing in Pueblo (50 miles south of the Springs), LockMart has manufacturing in Denver (actually, the 'burbs, I don't think any of these companies are physically within the city & county of Denver).

Not arguing, just adding details. I can honestly say, talking to friends in the Springs, they aint moving to Alabama. There are many of the same opinion.
 
Space stuff has been moving to Huntsville for a while. The Missile Defense Agency moved from Arlington to there years ago. I worked as a Consultant there back in the 2000’s. Nice office looking down on Fort Fumble, Arlington Cemetery and the USAF Memorial.
 
wanttaja said:
As to "why", the same reason a shuttle is being moved from DC to Texas: Rewarding political stances.
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Discovery isn't moving. That provision was just grandstanding.
 
Zeldman said:
Maybe they believe the south will rise again.??
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Hmm. The US Secretary of War position just prior to the Civil War was occupied by southerners (Jefferson Davis, for one). They oversaw a lot of buildup in military facilities in the south, just prior to succession....

Ron "Goober Peas" Wanttaja
 
I’m sure this is yet another extremely efficient use of taxpayer money by the department of defense, err sorry the department of war.
 
Pork barrel decisions are always couched in politics. No way around it, it's definitional.

Geographic basing decisions are often removed from national security or readiness motivations, even though they are sold to the public as being primarily motivated by them. They are also at the center behind the manning and inexperience/retention problems within the DoD, which cost additional billions in re-training/replacement costs, plus PCS costs, latter which is in the billions as a stand alone line item.

I had to personally divorce in order to keep my job on account of these basing decisions. Currently trying to reach the finish line as a migrant worker, as my family (my only one, did not incur family formation in the first marriage, thankfully) couldn't do this penal colony for a second time, and I'm really trying not to divorce again.

At the end of the day, the local civilian economies reign supreme, we're just a federal transfers vessel. National security is a throwaway platitude from where I sit as I enter my 20th year of service.

In fairness, the implied dynamic isn't limited to DoD. We've seen agency moves out of NoVa into flyover states, and many folks have quit over it. It's not the first time flyover location re-basing is weaponized as a de facto force shaping tool. That often offends denizens of flyover location X, oh well don't shoot the messneger.

and yes, IBTL.
 
people unwilling to move isn't limited to "paradise"-to-less-than-"paradise" types of relocations. Relocating a facility, a company, a base from places out in the sticks to "paradise" often has a number of people unwilling to make the move to "paradise"
 
The answer seems so obvious that to ask seems like trolling (being a bit sarcastic/joking)

And BTW: Space FORCE is and will (likely) be in the Pentagon, along side the others (Army, Navy, Marines, and, of course, the most important, the Air Force). Space COMMAND is a unified command akin to Special Ops Command (MacDill AFB, FL), Strategic Command (Offutt AFB, NE), Transportation Command (Scott AFB, IL), etc.

Notice how the others are at Air Force Bases, as is Space Command at present. Much better golfing. People relocating will have a big transition ahead of them.
 
Most major Army and Marine bases are located because of cheap land during the WWII buildup. Gotta have impact areas to train, and that means UXO.
 
Bob Noel said:
people unwilling to move isn't limited to "paradise"-to-less-than-"paradise" types of relocations. Relocating a facility, a company, a base from places out in the sticks to "paradise" often has a number of people unwilling to make the move to "paradise"
Click to expand...
...but not to the false-equivalence basis you imply by bringing that up in the first place. We agree to disagree.

Our outhouse locales are consistently undermanned, and at the top of the list for "7-day opt" and voluntary separations. So much so the Pentagon recognizes it and weaponizes functionals to assign folks approaching sanctuary (18 year service) in order to press-to-test, knowing they'll be losing the high experienced at rates sometimes approaching 7:1, then feign ignorance of the retention problem. Our metropolitan and cultural-center adjacent bases are overmanned to a fault by comparison. This isn't complicated.

It also goes beyond the schadenfreude some enjoy by watching increasing divorces and family breakups because "you signed up for it". The costs of retraining and moves are a burden on the taxpayer to the tune of billions for no added value, and they're completely discretionary decision on the part of Congress. It's just mid-week horsetrading by the House of Lords (ok, the "senate", in american parlance).
 
Huntsville has been the fastest growing city/area in Alabama for several years now. Huntsville has been a space/tech destination for quite a while - going back to Marshall Space Flight Center and beyond. I'm guessing the proximity to Redstone Arsenal and all the attached orgs/infrastructure in the area associated with Redstone are a big draw (at one point, they were making Patriot missiles across the river in Decatur and I know there are a couple of rocket assembly facilities in the area today).

Oh.... and politics.
 
hindsight2020 said:
...but not to the false-equivalence basis you imply by bringing that up in the first place. We agree to disagree.

...
Click to expand...

you might not think it happens, but I've seen it.

But, sure, we'll agree to disagree.
 
Any military system of consequence is manufactured everywhere. Being close to production facilities has no relevance for a major command. Likewise for contractor facilities. They will follow the HQ.
 
Yep, the Mormons in Colorado will refuse to move.

Do I need to put in something about sarcasm here?
 
Sorry, everybody is incorrect. It's because Colorado, at a higher elevation, is closer to space. Alabama, being closer to sea level, lets the little fellows get more of a running start to get up there.

The real question is, can anybody say "space command" without having to suppress laughter?
 
Maybe it matters and maybe it doesn't, but Huntsville has more engineers per capita than just about anywhere. IMHO, that's a reason not to live there, but I'm not trying to build a space force.
 
OneCharlieTango said:
Maybe it matters and maybe it doesn't, but Huntsville has more engineers per capita than just about anywhere. IMHO, that's a reason not to live there, but I'm not trying to build a space force.
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I don't know how that would matter to the DoD. They'd be civilian engineers, not military, and obviously already employed.

For sheer numbers of engineers, I suspect southern California is the winner, there. I was an engineer in the Air Force; did my four years at Buckley ANG Base outside of Denver (now Buckley Space Force Base). One of the reasons I got out is that the Air Force was insisting my next assignment would be in Southern Cal. High cost of living area, then and now, and couldn't see moving there.

Ron Wanttaja
 
The comments here show a lack of knowledge of what a Unified Combatant Command does. Space Command does not engineer or build anything. Their role is to provide Command and Control of space forces provided by the 5 services.

Space Command and Space Force are two totally different entities, with two different missions. Space Force develops and provides capabilities. Space Command controls them.

Space Command does not give a hoot in hell where the engineers are, or where the rockets and satellites are made.
 
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Because they’re looking to build a service academy for the Space Force, and Colorado Springs already has one?

What would they call the academites there?
 
If DoD were smart, they would create a hybrid officer accession program for Space Force, Cyber Command, and NSA, and put it somewhere in Silicon Valley. Model it like Sandhurst rather than the 4 year academies.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Because they’re looking to build a service academy for the Space Force, and Colorado Springs already has one?

What would they call the academites there?
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Members of the Space Force are called Guardians. Named after the Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Cleveland Indians)?
 
X3 Skier said:
Members of the Space Force are called Guardians. Named after the Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Cleveland Indians)?
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Google AI has suggestions:

Common synonyms for "junior guardian" include "young protector," "adolescent sentinel," and "youthful guardian".
 
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