The investigation will look at the extent to which the Air Force complies with the Department of Defense and Air Force policy in the selection process, uses objective points to rank the six possible locations, and calculates the cost and other factors accurately and consistently, Stone wrote in the memo. work is set out.
It was generally expected that the Air Force would prefer to hold the headquarters of the space command at its current provisional location in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican who called for an investigation a month ago, welcomed the announcement.
“It is imperative that we thoroughly review what I believe will be a fundamentally flawed process that focuses on bean counting rather than US space domination,” Lamborn said in a statement.
He also called for a report from the Government Liability on the ‘flawed methodology behind the process’, while appealing to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense to increase the scope of the investigation.
“I am still concerned that the strategic base process appears to be subject to undue political influence,” he wrote in a separate letter to the acting inspector general.
Former Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett announced the decision to base Space Command headquarters in Huntsville on January 13, one day after the air force said it would leave its post before the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The Trump administration established Space Force in 2019 as the 11th Army Fighter Command.
Huntsville was chosen in five other locations because it ‘favorably’ compared factors such as mission, infrastructure capacity, community support and costs to the Department of Defense, the air force said.
“Furthermore, Redstone Arsenal has offered a facility to support the headquarters, at no cost, while the permanent facility is being built,” the statement read. “The Department of the Air Force expects to make a final decision on the location of the U.S. Space Command headquarters in the spring of 2023, pending the results of the required analysis of the environmental impact.”
Colorado Springs will remain the provisional headquarters until the facilities at Redstone Arsenal are ready to support the mission.