HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the site of U.S. Space Command’s future home Dec. 12 and endorsed the move to establish the headquarters here after years of political back and forth.
“It is common sense that this is precisely where Space Command should be. It is common sense that we need to move rapidly and expeditiously,” Hegseth said in remarks at the ceremony. “We are deadly serious in committing to cutting every piece of red tape and bureaucracy to get this headquarters established as quickly as humanly possible.”
Space Command is currently located in Colorado Springs, Colo., which has been its provisional home since it was re-established in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term. In recent years, there has been a bitter political tug-of-war over its location.
During the waning days of Trump’s first term in 2021, his administration selected Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville as the command’s permanent location. But President Joe Biden overturned that decision in July 2023, keeping the command in Colorado for the time being. In December of that year, SPACECOM declared full operational capability at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo.
With Trump’s return to the White House, Biden’s decision was reversed in September, and Redstone Arsenal again became the new command’s future home.
“Now we are off to the races to get it done,” said Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, who delivered remarks at the ceremony along with the head of Space Command Gen. Stephen N. Whiting. Underscoring the political stakes, Alabama’s congressional delegation also attended and spoke at the ceremony, and Hegseth highlighted their efforts to move the command to Huntsville.
Hegseth, Meink, Whiting, and others unveiled the sign for Space Command in a nearly empty field. The construction equipment, which provided a backdrop, signaled that the command still has a long way to go before it is operational in Alabama.
“That capability is critical to the security of this nation more than ever. And getting it set up and getting it fully operational is one of my focuses going forward,” Meink added.
Officials say the unveiling was a milestone in the Trump administration’s push to make Alabama the permanent location of America’s newest combatant command.
“This is the place to continue to establish space dominance,” Hegseth said.
The process to transfer the combatant command, which has advanced capabilities and responsibilities such as orbital warfare, is expected to take years. Operators need to have fully functional capabilities in place before they can assume their role in Huntsville.
While Hegseth and other officials emphasized the importance of speed—the invocation delivered by an Army chaplain prayed for on-time and on-budget military construction—none provided a precise timeline for the move.
The number of Space Command’s personnel at Redstone Arsenal is currently in the single digits but is expected to grow to a few dozen in the early part of next year, a SPACECOM spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. In total, the move involves transferring more than 1,300 personnel, 60 percent of whom are civilian employees, from Colorado to Alabama, Whiting said in a speech in Huntsville on Dec. 10.
“The quicker we establish this, the more robust the capabilities are, the more likely we are able to deter the next conflict, and if necessary, stand prepared to overwhelmingly defeat our enemies,” Hegseth said.
Air & Space Forces Magazine traveled with Hegseth on his trip to Huntsville, which included a stop at Boeing’s facilities that produce advanced PAC-3 seekers for Patriot ballistic missile defense systems and the Army’s newly established Portfolio Acquisition Executive Fires, which was established to align with the Pentagon’s acquisition reforms. He also visited the headquarters of the Missile Defense Agency.
The SPACECOM spokesperson said there would be “irreversible progress” within several years to move the command to Alabama, while maintaining its capability in Colorado in the interim. Whiting met with Hegseth last month at the Pentagon to discuss plans for the move.
The Army’s service component to SPACECOM, Space and Missile Defense Command, is located at Redstone Arsenal. But the Space Force’s service component to U.S. Space Command, U.S. Space Force Combat Forces Command, is set to remain in Colorado Springs. The Space Force’s expected growth in Colorado, along with the capabilities remaining in the state, has assuaged many of the concerns among Colorado congressional Republicans.
Colorado’s attorney general, a Democrat, is suing the Trump administration and seeking a stop-work order on the move, arguing it was politically motivated. Trump criticized Colorado’s use of mail-in voting when he announced the move.
Whiting said support from local officials in both Alabama and Colorado is important for the success of the command.
“Once established, this warfighting platform will optimize our already unmatched mission readiness and ensure the United States continues to lead and shape military spacepower for the future fight because it is vital we remain the world’s preeminent space power, ensuring that America’s interests are protected in the high frontier,” Whiting said. “We must guarantee that there is never a day without space.”
