DENVER (AP) – The Department of Defense inspector general announced Friday that he was reviewing the Trump administration’s last-minute decision to move the U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama.
The Jan. 13 decision, a week before Trump left office, blinded Colorado authorities and raised issues of political retaliation. Trump had hinted at a Colorado Springs rally in 2020 that command would remain at the Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs.
But the man with whom Trump held that rally, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, lost his re-election candidacy in November and Colorado, unlike Alabama, voted decisively against Trump. The last-minute move of the Air Force headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama, home of the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal, blinded Colorado authorities on both sides, who have urged the administration to They ask to reconsider the decision.
On Friday, the inspector general’s office announced it was investigating whether the relocation was in line with Air Force and Pentagon policy and was based on proper assessments of competing sites.
Colorado officials on both sides were delighted. “It is imperative to thoroughly review what I believe will prove to be a fundamentally flawed process that focused on bean counting rather than American space domination,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican whose district includes Space Command.
The two U.S. Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, also hailed the investigation. “The Moving Space Command will disrupt the mission and at the same time jeopardize our national security and our economic vitality,” the senators said in a joint statement. “Politics has no role to play in our national security. We fully support the research. “
Among other functions, the Space Command allows satellite navigation and communication of troops and warns of missile launches. Also in Peterson are the U.S. Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Northern Command.
The Space Command differs from the United States Space Force, launched in December 2019 as the first new military service since the Air Force was created in 1947. The Space Command is not an individual military service, but a central command for space operations at the military level. It operated at Peterson from 1985 until it disbanded in 2002 and reactivated in 2019.
The Air Force accepted offers of seats for command when he recovered and was considering six finalists, including Huntsville, when Trump hinted he would stay in Colorado Springs.