In a Tuesday letter, a swath of Ohio’s congressional delegation implored President Joe Biden to choose Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as headquarters for the U.S. Space Command and to locate additional U.S. Space Force units in Ohio in partnership with the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky.
The letter signed by all the state’s Democratic U.S. Congress members, as well as Republican U.S. Reps. Dave Joyce of South Russell and Max Miller of Rocky River, said Ohio’s numerous industry and university partners “create a synergy around national security and space that is unmatched around the country.
“From the Wright brothers to American heroes like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, the story of modern aviation is rooted in Ohio – and Ohio is ready to meet the challenges of the future,” said the letter, whose recipients also include Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, and Chief of Space Operations General B. Chance Saltzman.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, told reporters Wednesday that other states, including Colorado, are seeking the headquarters, and there’s no deadline from the federal government to make a decision.
Gov. Mike DeWine and dozens of local officials made their own pitch to put U.S. Space Command at Wright-Patterson in 2020. It said the Dayton area is “ideally positioned” to host the facility, given that it’s already home to the National Air and Space Center, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Institute of Technology, and the 18th Intelligence Squadron.
U.S. Sen. JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, said he didn’t sign the letter because he doesn’t think the state has a realistic chance to get the headquarters after speaking to authorities within the Department of Defense. He said its decision has “nothing to do with the strength of Ohio,” and is a factor of the department’s internal decision making.
“I’m not going to sign a letter unless I think it’s going to do something,” said Vance. “If I sign a letter, it’s because I think it might actually move the needle... I don’t think we’re in the running.”
Other Ohio officials sent their own letters urging that the state be considered for the headquarters.
“Ohio’s history of support for national defense, along with its many space-related resources, would make a fitting host for new Space Force missions or the permanent headquarters of the U.S. Space Command, should the decision on the location be revisited,” said a letter sent by a coalition of economic development groups that includes JobsOhio, the Great Cleveland Partnership and Greater Akron Chamber. “Such activities would find numerous opportunities for partnerships and efficiencies in our state as well as a robust and skilled workforce.”
While the headquarters was initially supposed to go to Alabama, a 2022 General Accounting Office report found that improper selection criteria for the headquarters were used in an election year to favor strongly Republican Alabama over more Democratic Colorado. That has prompted a move to reconsider the location.
NBC News has reported that the Biden White House would like to leave the U.S. Space Command Headquarters permanently in its startup location of Colorado Springs instead of moving to Alabama because of concerns about Alabama’s restrictive abortion laws.
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