Colorado Springs Mayor reacts to federal report on Space Command move, potential impact
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers is speaking out on the recently released federal report on the U.S. Space Command basing decision.
In a report released Tuesday night, the Department of Defense found no wrongdoing in choosing Huntsville, Alabama for the Space Command headquarters. Still, Suthers reaffirms his stance that keeping the headquarters in Colorado Springs is in the best interest of national security.
The report from the Department of Defense Office of Inspectors General was to evaluate the decision of selecting Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred permanent location of the U.S. Space Command headquarters.
The report says, "this assessment supports the selection of Colorado Springs as the preferred alternative and Huntsville as the feasible alternative."
The reasoning for this assessment is omitted from the version report of the report available to the public, but the Air Force looked into a number of factors including the mission, infrastructure capacity, community support, and the costs to the DoD.
However, the DoD report stops short of suggesting that the decision to move the Space Command headquarters to Huntsville be overturned.
"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 (USSPACECOM HQ) complied with law and policy, and was reasonable in identifying Huntsville as the preferred permanent location," the findings said.
Mayor Johns Suthers provided a statement to 13 Investigates just before noon on Wednesday.
“The OIG report confirms what we have been saying all along; that keeping USSPACECOM in Colorado Springs is in the best interest of national security. It important to note that our nation’s senior military leaders made these recommendations even before Russian actions in Ukraine—a protracted conflict that is estimated, according to the Director of National Intelligence, to be more unpredictable and potentially escalatory in the coming months. Qualifying the document as ‘reasonable’ is simply not good enough, especially when the recommendation is starkly at odds with our national security advisors. The report highlights a lack of critical documentation and policy and most concerningly, shows that the former president ignored senior military leaders’ recommendations to keep USSPACECOM in Colorado Springs. We cannot afford to put politics over national security and delay our ability to reach full operational capability, especially given the current international climate. USSPACECOM needs to stay in Colorado Springs for the foreseeable future and we look forward to continued discussion on the matter.”
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers
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.
Wednesday, Suthers held a press conference alongside the Defence Development Chief with the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.
The full press conference is available below:
This was one of two investigations into the Space Command basing decision. It's unclear when the findings from the General Accountability Office (GAO) will be released.
