BUNKER HILL – Grissom Air Reserve Base will not be the new headquarters of U.S. Space Command, despite two U.S. representatives’ pitch to bring the new military branch to Miami County.
The Department of the Air Force last week announced the six finalists now being considered to house the headquarters. Grissom isn’t one of them.
The six locations include Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; Offutt AFB, Nebraska; Patrick AFB, Florida; Peterson AFB, Colorado; Port San Antonio, Texas; and Redstone Army Airfield, Alabama.
The announcement comes after Reps. Jim Banks and Jackie Walorski of Indiana sent a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett June 2, urging her to look at Grissom as a potential candidate for the headquarters. If selected, the move could have brought 1,400 new jobs to the base.
Barrett in March told lawmakers the Air Force was reopening the process to select a permanent headquarters to give state and local leaders a fresh opportunity to make their pitches. Communities from across 24 states ended up nominating their military installations to be evaluated as potential locations for hosting the headquarters.
Now, Air Force officials will conduct both virtual and on-site visits at each candidate location to assess which one is best suited to be the U.S. Space Command Headquarters. The assessment will be based on factors such as the base’s mission, infrastructure capacity, community support and costs to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Air Force said it anticipates selecting the new headquarters in early 2021. In the interim, Peterson AFB will remain the temporary headquarters until a permanent location is selected and facilities are ready to support the mission.
Space Command was established last year as the military’s 11th unified combatant command to “deter conflict, and if necessary, defeat aggression,” according to its mission statement.
In the letter sent to Barrett, the two Indiana representatives said Grissom was a viable option as the new home of Space Command due to its “promising resource for space assets and personnel, with significant room for housing and office expansion.”
The letter also highlighted the base’s 12,500-foot runway, which is the longest in the state and was previously designated as an alternative landing location for space missions.
Both representatives also made the case for moving the headquarters to Indiana, which they said has a low cost of living and access to nationally recognized STEM universities that “will prove to be a worthwhile investment for the U.S. Air Force.”
The letter says Gov. Eric Holcomb also valued the partnership between the defense industry, educational institutions and the Department of Defense, noting that Holcomb has publicly committed to tripling the state’s federal defense investments.
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.