Amid the political clash and a lawmaker's call for yet another investigation, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall revealed that he and SPACECOM leader Gen. Jim Dickinson also disagreed over where the new HQ should be.
Meanwhile, Alabama's Attorney General Steve Marshall on Tuesday sent a letter to the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General asking it to also investigate the decision.
Satellite communications has become a priority for US Space Command as part of its space "assurance mission" for NATO allies and international partners in the Ukraine war, says the command's head, Gen. Jim Dickinson.
"I haven't made a recommendation. I haven't made a decision. We're still in the process of doing some analysis," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told House lawmakers today.
The exact amount Dickinson would like to see Congress add to SPACECOM's own budget is unclear, as the funding for five of the six wish list requests is restricted to a classified annex.
STRATCOM's Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations Center is focused primarily on repelling threats from Russia and China, but DoD also faces a potentially crippling spectrum grab by US commercial 5G wireless giants.
The new office will coordinate the commercial cooperation activities of the Joint Task Force-Space Defense at Schriever SFB in Colorado and the Combined Force Space Component Command at Vandenberg SFB in California.
SPACECOM is providing "spaceflight safety data to 680 global organizations flying 7400 spacecraft," SPACECOM head Gen. Jim Dickinson said. "We also track an additional 41,000 pieces of debris."