Mike Pence announces Donald Trump's 'US Space Command'
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The entreaty to President Biden keep US Space Command at its current home of the Peterson Space Force Base came in a letter signed by a cross-party group of Coloradan lawmakers, including both senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and all seven state representatives. They said: “Space has become an increasingly critical and contested domain that is central to our economy, communications, and national security. President Putin’s lawless, reprehensible aggression against Ukraine in violation of international rules and norms underscores the urgency for America to maintain superiority in the space domain.”
Space Command — which, in its present iteration, was established in 2019 — is one of the US military’s 11 combatant commands.
According to the lawmakers, “US Space Command plays a pivotal role in defending satellite systems that provide GPS navigation, national security communications, internet and cellular services, and missile warning and defence.”
On August 24 last year, it was announced that US Space Command had reached its “initial operational capability” — a military term meaning the “minimum usefully deployable form”.
According to US Space Command deputy commander Lieutenant General John E. Shaw, full operational capability will not be achieved until the combatant command’s permanent headquarters have been selected.
The announcement that the US Army post of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama was the preferred final location for US Space Command was made in January last year.
Alongside Peterson Space Force Base — US Space Command’s original and present, interim home — other candidate locations included Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Joint Base San Antonio and the Patrick Space Force Base in Florida.
Rumours abound that the selection of Redstone Arsenal was made in part due to political pressure from then-president Donald Trump — although the Pentagon repeatedly insisted that the Alabama site was chosen after months of careful deliberation.
Mr Trump himself has stirred this particular pot, however, by telling the hosts of the Alabama-based comedy radio show “Rick and Bubba” on August 20 last year that he “single-handedly said, ‘let’s go to Alabama’.”
Regardless of why Redstone Arsenal was chosen, the Air Force has estimated that it will take around two years to complete an environmental review of the new site — leaving Space Command, for now, based in Colorado and only at initial operating capacity.
The lawmakers told President Biden: “We remain deeply troubled that the decision to relocate USSPACECOM undermined the two most important factors for any critical basing decision: protecting national security and minimising cost.
“At a time when threats in space are rapidly increasing, particularly from Russia and China, USSPACECOM cannot afford any operational interruptions and must achieve Full Operational Capability as quickly as possible.”
“Moving the combatant command headquarters will slow the progress toward full capability — a delay we cannot afford at this fraught geopolitical moment in history.”
To illustrate this point, the group highlighted an incident from last November, in which Russia’s defence ministry destroyed a defunct Soviet satellite during an unannounced test of an anti-satellite weapons system.
The resulting hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris forced those aboard the International Space Station (ISS) — including five NASA astronauts and two cosmonauts from the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos — to repeatedly take shelter in the SpaceX Dragon and Soyuz capsules each time the orbiting lab passed through the cloud.
Russia subsequently confirmed the nature of the test — but denied that it posed any risk to the ISS, saying: ““The U.S. knows for certain that the resulting fragments, in terms of test time and orbital parameters, did not and will not pose a threat to orbital stations, spacecraft and space activities.”
However, at the time, US Space Command’s General James Dickinson said: “Russia has demonstrated a deliberate disregard for the security, safety, stability, and long-term sustainability of the space domain for all nations.”
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The lawmakers added: “We must respond to rapidly advancing threats in space by building on the investments that have already been made in Colorado and to our mission in space, not squandering time, money, personnel, and additional resources by moving USSPACECOM.”
Colorado, they noted, also sports to the National Space Defense Center, which provides coordination for united space defence operations; the National Reconnaissance Office’s Aerospace Data Facility–Colorado, which disseminates intelligence to various US agencies and allies; as well as national security communications systems the lawmakers said would be “extraordinarily expensive to quickly replicate elsewhere”.
The group concluded their letter to President Biden thus: “It is our understanding that the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Defense Inspector General will soon release reports examining the USSPACECOM basing decision.”
“We urge your administration to carefully review both reports and ensure that the final basing decision takes the findings, and national security and cost implications, into account.”
Alongside Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, the letter to President Biden was signed by Representatives Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn from the Republican party and the Democratic Representatives Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter and Joe Neguse.
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