Federal Investigation into U.S. Space Command basing decision released
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Tuesday night, the federal investigation into the Space Command basing decision was released. This was one of two investigations requested by Colorado lawmakers after Huntsville, Alabama was named the future home instead of Colorado Springs.
The findings confirmed what many have long suspected, Colorado Springs was the military's first choice. However, it stops short of saying the decision should be overturned.
In the report, released by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, most of the details on the scoring and the final decision to choose Huntsville over Colorado Springs, where it's currently located, are redacted.
However, the report says, "this assessment supports the selection of Colorado Springs as the preferred alternative and Huntsville as the feasible alternative."
Sources have previously told KRDO that despite the military's preference, former President Trump went with Huntsville for political reasons.
While there's no mention of that in the report, and even if it were true, it might not change the decision.
According to the summary, "we found that the process Air Force officials used to select Huntsville, Alabama as the preferred permanent location for the U.S. Space Command Headquarters complied with law and policy, and was reasonable in identifying Huntsville as the preferred permanent location."
Hours after the report was released, Congressman Doug Lamborn released a statement criticizing the report and claiming that the other federal investigation will be much more inclusive.
“The DoD OIG report confirms that throughout the process the best military advice and first choice of our top commanders was to keep U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs. This report focused on the chronology of the events and whether any nefarious or illegal actions occurred, while the forthcoming GAO report did a much deeper review of the criteria and scoring in this basing decision. With only a cursory review of the process itself, the DoD OIG’s conclusion that the previous basing decision was reasonable simply means that it was logical based on flawed evaluations. Two of the four recommendations in the DoD OIG report are to more fully account for the imperative to quickly achieve full operational capability based on concerns raised by our military leaders that this was not adequately factored in during this basing process. I will continue to advocate for a fair and transparent basing decision that prioritizes national security imperatives and rapidly addresses the increasing threats we face in space.”
Congressman Doug Lamborn
There was no recommendation in this report that the decision to make Huntsville the new home of U.S. Space Command be reconsidered or changed. It's unclear when the findings from the General Accountability Office (GAO) will be released or whether it will carry any more weight than this one.
