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COMMENTARY
By Troy Turner
WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: Attendance at SMDS25 has now topped 9,000, it was announced this morning.
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HUNTSVILLE — Space Command was, as expected, a topic hot on the agenda Tuesday at the 2025 Space and Missile Defense Symposium.
And, though not expected but hoped for, there was NO announcement of where SPACECOM Headquarters will be permanently located, as in moved from Colorado to Huntsville as Alabama’s Congressional delegation say is coming.
President Trump himself is likely to make the announcement when and if it does come, which could be any day.
See the column below, published last week prior to today’s symposium sessions:
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HUNTSVILLE – The question remains.
Where will United States Space Command have its permanent headquarters established: Huntsville, Alabama, or Colorado Springs, Colorado?
Despite a wide array of politicians and pundits forecasting a decision “within days” of President Donald Trump beginning his second term, six months later there remains no announcement.
But… there’s a chance that could change on Tuesday.
Starting out hot
The 2025 Space and Missile Defense Symposium (SMDS25) begins here Monday with registration and industry meet-and-greets, then Tuesday-Thursday with an impressive lineup of panel sessions involving many of the nation’s top military and industry leaders in the space and missile defense field.
More than a thousand anxious participants are likely to be in the auditorium as the programs begin, anxious because most of them will be representatives from hundreds of high-tech space and defense industries based in Huntsville, or military personnel whose careers will be closely tied to strategic decisions being made now.
And who is the first speaker after the host-speak and welcomes?
Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, commander, U.S. Space Command.
Listed as his topic is “SPACECOM Update.”
Albeit everyone working for President Trump — who also serves as commander-in-chief — knows by now that he likes to make the big announcements himself, it certainly seems as though the time could be right to finally declare Huntsville will be the new and permanent home for Space Command Headquarters.
Gen. Stephen N. Whiting
For those sitting in the back of the room on this saga, a see-saw row between Colorado and Alabama officials has raged as both states have vied for the billions of dollars surrounding the decision’s impact.
After several deep-dive studies and investigations, the bottom line has pointed more often than not toward Huntsville as the deserving site, despite the previous President Joe Biden administration declaring Colorado Springs as the host.
Alabama officials have promised for more than a year that if Trump was elected, it will only be a matter of time before a permanent home is established, and that being in Huntsville.
Alabama’s big hitters go to bat
Although Alabama Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville in their short tenures have more recently joined the bandwagon lobbying for Huntsville as the rightful home of SPACECOM, two other Congress members have fought this battle in the trenches for several years now.
Rep. Mike Rogers, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee and is an avid Trump supporter, has remained adamant throughout the selection process that SPACECOM HQ should and will be in Huntsville, and for all the right reasons.
“Space Command will not be permanently based in Colorado Springs. It will be permanently based in Huntsville, Alabama,” Rogers told AlaDefense.com in his Capitol Hill office during an October 2023 interview. “It’s just a matter of having to wait until after the next election.”
Rep. Mike Rogers
That election came in November 2024, and as Rogers predicted, Trump won. But to delay any advance of what Biden had started in Colorado Springs, Rogers in his role in the House was able to apply the brakes by halting all funding toward headquarters construction until more reviews were completed, including by the Air Force and General Accounting Office.
“We have stopped any expenditure of money that would make that permanently based out there (in Colorado),” he said in the 2023 interview. “There was a national competition, and Alabama won…. Biden did what he did for political reasons. After November’s general election, he won’t care anymore. That will be in Huntsville.”
Well, not yet, but many agree with Rogers and are trying to stay patient with the delay.
Rep. Dale Strong, who represents the district that includes Huntsville, is one of them.
Rep. Dale Strong
“The GAO report confirms what we already know — USSPACECOM belongs in Huntsville, Alabama,” he told AlaDefense.com. “The report highlights the fact that current operations in Colorado Springs are unsustainable due to inadequate and dispersed facilities, staffing shortages, and outdated infrastructure.
“Officials acknowledged the current posture can’t be maintained long-term without new military construction,” Strong said. “Keeping the headquarters in Colorado Springs is projected to cost the taxpayer $426 million more than it would to transition to Huntsville.
“It’s time to move forward with what’s best for national security and bring US Space Command Headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama.”
SPACECOM’s leadership will be here
Whiting, SPACECOM commander, will be followed Tuesday morning by the first panel session, which also will address updates regarding Space Command.
Major Gen. Brian Gibson, SPACECOM’s director of plans and policy, will be included on the panel along with several other high-ranking officers connected to various space and missile defense missions.
Whiting, as a sidenote, has previous military experience serving in Alabama. He was at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery from 2000-2002, first as a student at Air Command and Staff College, and then at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.
Maxwell AFB serves as a major educational hub for air warfare, not just for the Air Force and Space Force, but also for other branches of the U.S. military and allies.
Whiting became commander of SPACECOM in January 2024.
Other panel sessions of note on the SMDS25 agenda include one on Next Generation of Space and Missile Defense, and another on Golden Dome for America. Both of these panels also include high-ranking officers.
There will be more ribbons at SMSD25 than in a Hobby Lobby store.
The time is now
The need for a decision on SPACECOM HQ is more important for reasons that go far beyond Alabama’s and Colorado’s economic and prestige interests. Space Command needs to be focused on its business, that being to serve as the command-central involved in all branches of the military and their now obvious dependence on space assets and strategy.
The 2025 Space and Missile Defense Symposium will no doubt hammer that reminder home over the three days of sessions next week, and it will be interesting to learn what our defenders and defense industry are willing to share.
Hopefully, that includes a decision on SPACECOM HQ.
If, however, there is NOT an announcement at SMDS25, then surely it only is because the symposium event is a time to tee up such an imminent headline for Trump himself to make.
Imminent, as in now.
Right?
Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. His bio can be found here.
Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, commanding general of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, is shown speaking during the 2024 Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville.
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