The Pentagon will review Donald Trump’s last-minute decision to relocate US Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, it has announced.
The move, which the ex-president signed-off on one week before he left office last month, blindsided Colorado officials and raised questions of political retaliation, reports the Associated Press.
Mr Trump had hinted at a 2020 rally in Colorado Springs that US Space Command would stay at Peterson Air Force Base in the city.
But following Colorado’s Republican Senator Cory Gardner losing his seat, Mr Trump decided to move command headquarters to the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
Mr Trump won 62 per cent fo the vote in Alabam in the 2020 presidential election, and the state also elected a pro-Trump senator, Tommy Tuberville.
Now the Department of Defense’s inspector general has announced an investigation into the relocation to see if it complied with Air Force and Pentagon policy.
“It is imperative that we thoroughly review what I believe will prove to be a fundamentally flawed process that focused on bean-counting rather than American space dominance,” said Republican congressman Doug Lamborn, whose district includes Space Command.
Colorado’s two Democratic senators also welcomed the review.
“Moving Space Command will disrupt the mission while risking our national security and economic vitality,” said Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper in a joint statement.
US Space Command differs from US Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the US military that was established in 2019.
Space Command is not an individual military service but a central command for all military space operations.
It was dissolved in 2002 and also revived in 2019.
The Air Force accepted bids from six final locations, including Huntsville, before Mr Trump hinted it would stay in Colorado.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
