Tuberville Receives Update on Timeline for SPACECOM Moving to Huntsville

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with U.S. Space Command Commander, General Stephen Whiting, and U.S. Strategic Command Commander, Admiral Richard Correll during a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing. During the hearing, they spoke about the plans to move Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama, and the need to build more submarines for America's nuclear capabilities.

Read Sen. Tuberville's comments below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.

TUBERVILLE: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [Good] morning.

General Whiting, just a couple updates, a move from Space Command, securing a new military construction agent today, March 26th is the deadline. Do we have any update on that?"

WHITING: "Senator, thank you for the question. Our move to Huntsville is moving forward. And we are right now in final discussions with elements of the United States Air Force, and the Army Corps of Engineers [to] pull together what the team of that construction agent will look like. I believe the Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary Meink, and I will memorialize that decision in the very near future. So, I'm very happy that we're able to take advantage of the MILCON reform language that the Committee inserted into the last National Defense Authorization Act, which is allowing us to build our new headquarters in a different way than we would have last year without that language."

TUBERVILLE: "[What about the] existing facilities? What are you thinking about that? Or are you thinking of new facilities? Any update on that?"

WHITING: "Yes, Senator. As we're building that new headquarters, that will take a few years. We are modifying the existing facilities on Redstone Arsenal. And in fact, next month in April, we will do our first ribbon cutting on a top secret SCIF that'll seat over 80 people, and then we will start moving personnel there to begin work at that level. So, I'm happy at the progress that we're making and that progress will continue over the next couple of years as we work to get a significant portion of our staff there even while the permanent headquarters is being built."

TUBERVILLE: "Yeah. What's the timeline on that? My understanding was three to seven years. Is that correct?"

WHITING: "For the permanent headquarters, Senator? I would expect right now that that facility will break ground next year and will come online likely in 2031. And then there'll be probably a year's worth of time that we're moving people into that facility. But that's the timeline we're currently looking at."

TUBERVILLE: "Personnel transition. Any update on that present, future?"

WHITING: "Yes, Senator. So, we have a small office that we've stood up there-about 20 people right now. And then by the end of this year, we are targeting that number to be closer to 200 people that will be working from Redstone, from our headquarters. Of course, that will be paced with the delivery of interim facilities that are appropriate to the security classification level we need, and that we have all of the appropriate IT networks. We are offering relocation incentives for our workforce in Colorado to consider moving to Alabama.

We also are offering retention incentives because I need my workforce to stay with me in Colorado until their function is ready to move. And so those are some of the updates that we have as we're working the movement of personnel, Senator."

TUBERVILLE: "Talk about logistics for a second of SPACECOM missions. Air Force has over 10% of its aircraft dedicated to aerial refueling. Satellites have historically been built with no way to refuel here in the U.S., but the Chinese Communist Party demonstrated space refueling capabilities for the first time last year. Any recommendations for the future?"

WHITING: "Senator, you know well in your question that our traditional domains, the air, land, and sea, those military services that have lead there, have extraordinary percentages of their force dedicated to enabling maneuver through sustainment and logistics. In fact, there's a great quote from Admiral Nimitz in World War II that he said that at sea replenishment and refueling is what won World War II for the U.S. Navy because they could continue to fight. And as you noted, in space, we launch, typically, a satellite with all the fuel it's ever going to have. And every time we maneuver, we expend fuel, and so we always have to have this discussion, 'Should I maneuver even though it's gonna take life off the end of that satellite?' And that creates a psychology of scarcity across our enterprise where we don't enable tactical commanders to maneuver the way they might want to because we're concerned about the expenditure of fuel.

So, my recommendation, Senator, is that the United States develop on orbit logistics and servicing capability that would allow us to bring maneuver warfare to space the same way that the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps execute maneuver warfare in their respective domains."

TUBERVILLE: "Thank you, Admiral [Correll], submarines are the tip of the spear for our nuclear capabilities. The problem is we just can't seem to build them fast enough. So, what flexibility and capabilities do STRATCOM gain if we were able to fill 16 Columbia class submarines versus 12?"

CORRELL: "Senator, the existing capability we have includes 14 Ohio class boats with 20 tubes. So, that's 280 launch tubes. The program of record is a minimum of 12 Columbia [class boats] with 16 tubes each and that's 192. So that's 280 versus 192.

Chairman Wicker in his opening remarks talked about the challenges and the complexities in the strategic environment. So, additional capacity and capability at sea in terms of launchers is very beneficial from my perspective. There's ongoing work within the Department [of War] in terms of force efficiency, and that work will inform any future budget decisions associated with Columbia [class]. But if you just do the math for what we have and the program of record, I will continue to advocate for additional capability at sea in terms of the Columbia class."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.

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