U.S. Space Command headquarters can be fully operational before President Donald Trump leaves office, a Redstone Arsenal official said on Wednesday.
“That command can theoretically be operational very, very quickly, in under the three-year timeline easily,” Martin Traylor, deputy to the garrison commander, said during a roundtable at the Huntsville- Madison Chamber. “We’re the Army. We’re going to adjust to whatever we need to do.”
Traylor presented the timeline for Space Command’s relocation from its temporary location in Colorado Springs, saying a small “torch party” would arrive first which could be absorbed “effective today.”
“We have the space for that and all of the communications,” Traylor said. “The next would be a small advance part to come in, maybe 100 people. We also have plans to absorb that instantly.”
He said the arsenal would be using a two-phase construction approach, saying a temporary site will be built in a period of 18 to 24 months inside a secured area on the installation to handle Space Command in its entirety. Traylor said a permanent facility will take five to seven years to build.
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle was asked about the possibility of another administration later reversing the decision and moving Space Command back to Colorado. The mayor indicated he did not think that would happen.
“I don’t see this as a decision that should be batted back and forth like a ping pong ball,” Battle said. “This is a decision based on national security. There was a competition for this.”
And Traylor said the arsenal was an ideal location for Space Command.
“If you look at the commands here, everything from NASA to the FBI to the Missile Defense Agency … the synergy is there already between those commands,” he said. “Most of those elements are already dealing with Space Command on a daily basis anyway. It makes it a whole lot easier because now in addition to being able to communicate over in their secure communications networks, they can literally go down the street and see people face to face. It’s hard to put a price on a relationship.”
Battle said the city will be working in collaboration with the national, state and regional leaders to set up Space Command at the arsenal.
“Huntsville stands united to welcome employees and the team we will call Space Command,” the mayor said. “Over the past two decades, Huntsville’s deliberate, forward looking growth strategy has driven significant investments in infrastructure and quality of life. We’ve added new roads. We’ve added diverse housing, state of the art schools and workforce development programs. Huntsville and team Redstone are mission ready to support Space Command with our highly skilled workforce, strong military and community that embraces innovation.”
Recruiting the workforce
Just how many jobs Space Command will bring to the community is still a subject of speculation. Battle concentrated Wednesday on the approximately 1,400 direct jobs the relocation of the headquarters will bring.
“This move will bring approximately 1,400 direct jobs over five years,” the mayor said. “For those who are worried about the 1,400 jobs over five years, it’s a simple math problem. … They will be coming in 280 people a year. Some of those people will live in Huntsville. Some will live in Madison. Some will live in Madison County. Some will live all over north Alabama.”
Based on the workforce at Mazda Toyota Manufacturing in Greenbrier and other major area employers, Battle said it is possible that 60% of Space Command’s workforce will live outside of Huntsville’s city limits.
“That puts us down to about 46 people a year coming into the city of Huntsville, a very manageable number for us,” he said.
Based on previous BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) relocations to Huntsville such as the move by the Army Material Command in 2005, Battle said it is possible that roughly half of Space Command’s workforce in Colorado Springs will relocate to Huntsville. He said it is possible that about 700 of the positions could be filled locally.
The Huntsville-Madison County Chamber has already begun an effort to recruit workers from Colorado Springs.
“We’ve been working with the Colorado Springs community for several years now,” said Lucia Cape, Huntsville/Madison County Chamber senior vice president of economic development. “We have many companies that have locations both here in Huntsville and Colorado Springs. We’ve got a great network of people we can draw on to help us share that message.”
She said the Chamber effort is like the one it put into place when the Army Materiel Command relocated in 2005.
“We put together a regional team to implement as many as possible moves of people who were in those jobs to retain the intellectual knowledge of those jobs and provide mission continuity for the Army Materiel Command and the Missile Defense Agency,” Cape said. “And that program of work that we put together has been replicated many times for the FBI, for private companies we supported and were relocating from other areas.”
Cape said the Chamber presented its plans to the Air Force five years ago to help with the relocation of “those provisional jobs that had been set up in Colorado Springs to help them make decisions to move to Huntsville, to the Huntsville area.”
Battle said the community’s partnership with Redstone had been essential throughout the process of the selection of Space Command’s headquarters site.
“We have a proven track record for successfully relocating major military commands, including the Army Material Command, Army Aviation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and others,” the mayor said.
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