Air Force defends choice of Alabama's Redstone Arsenal to host U.S. Space Command - SpaceNews

Acting Secretary of the Air Force John Roth on June 16 pushed back on suggestions that the recommendation to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama was politically tainted.

“I have personally no evidence that the decision was politically motivated,” Roth told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing Wednesday.

Roth was responding to questions from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), who has been a vocal critic of the selection of the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, as the future location of U.S. Space Command’s headquarters. The command is currently based at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

Former Air Force secretary Barbara Barrett announced the decision in January in the final days of the Trump administration. Lamborn and other Colorado lawmakers have alleged the Trump White House improperly influenced the process.

Roth, who served as undersecretary of the Air Force under Barrett, told Lamborn that the decision “was the result of our strategic basing process and we have worked with all the stakeholders to do the analysis, and we’re now in the process of doing the environmental analysis.”

At the request of Colorado lawmakers, the U.S. Space Command basing decision is now being reviewed by the Pentagon’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office.