Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is urging the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to relocate to St. Clair County near Scott AFB, Ill., reported Metro-East News. “Land is easily available. We have access to Interstate 64, so we think it’s a strong bid,” said Durbin, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, during a press conference at Scott on Monday. The current NGA facilities are located in St. Louis, Mo., but the agency has said it expects to announce its selection for a new location “as early as March 2016” and complete the move by 2021, reported the newspaper. Of the four candidate locations, three remain in St. Louis, while one is adjacent to Scott in Illinois. The 800,000 square foot headquarters is expected to cost some $1.6 billion and bring 3,000 jobs, according to the newspaper.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
