The top general at U.S. Space Command acknowledged in a congressional subcommittee hearing Wednesday that expensive communications infrastructure would need to be duplicated in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, if the U.S. Space Command were to move there from Colorado Springs.
The admission comes despite Army Gen. James Dickinson’s support of the command’s cross-country relocation. It was part of an exchange Dickinson was having with Rep. Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Springs Republican who has been one of the loudest voices against the Trump Administration’s decision to move the mission.
President Trump’s January 13 decision to uproot U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs, where it has been operating on an interim basis since 2019, and move it to the base near Huntsville, Alabama, has been decried by some — including by member of Colorado’s congressional delegation — as a last minute political decision meant to reward a state which voted for Trump’s reelection and was meant to curry favor with Alabama’s two GOP Senators ahead of the former president’s second impeachment trial.
The rationale behind the basing decision is now the subject of two federal investigations.
“Every dollar spent on moving Space Command is a wasted dollar that could be spent on enhancing space capabilities" Lamborn said during the Wednesday hearing.
Gen. Dickinson, a Colorado native and graduate of Colorado State University, has led the multi-branch Space Command located at Peterson Air Force Base since last August. Despite the greater initial cost of relocating the command, Dickinson said the mission could be continued without major disruption were the move to go through.
