P'cola places nom for Space HQ

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The City of Pensacola, Fla., is making a bid to host the headquarters of the new U.S. Space Command. Other Florida cities could follow suit as the Air Force seeks self-nominations from qualified cities in all 50 states. U.S. Space Command is a unified combatant command under which the Space Force, Air Force and other branches of the military operate in space. “We do meet the minimum screening criteria,” Kaycee Lagarde, Pensacola’s public information officer, confirmed in a June 5 e-mail. Pensacola Mayor Grover C. Robinson IV sent a letter to Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development authority, expressing the city’s interest. The letter will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis for review and potential endorsement before forwarded to the Air Force. AF criteria was outlined in a May 14 notice to governors. Interested communities must be within the top 150 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in the country, within 25 miles of a military base and have a minimum score of 50 on the Livability Index published by the American Association of Retired Persons Public Policy Institute. The deadline to submit nominations and state endorsements to the AF is June 30. Space Florida has given governments until June 23 to submit. The mayor’s letter listed retired Navy Capt. Christopher Middleton, chairman of the West Florida Defense Alliance and military affairs liaison for University of West Florida President Martha Dunagin Saunders, as the city’s point of contact. U.S. Space Command is temporarily HQ’d Peterson AFB, Colo. When Space Command HQ is fully established it will include 1,400 military and civilian personnel. Colorado and Redstone (Ala.) remain strong contenders, according to a Space Florida executive. (Source: NW Fla. Daily News 06/07/20) The 20th Space Control Squadron is located at Eglin AFB, Fla., to execute multi-platform, tactical space war-fighting domain characterization, recognition, and responsiveness to achieve 21st Space Wing and United States Strategic Command intent. The 20th SPCS is made up of about 250 military and civilian personnel, operating and maintaining five weapon systems across six geographically-separated locations: AN/FPS-85 phased array radar Site C-6 at Eglin; three ground-based electro-optical deep space surveillance sensors at White Sands (NM) Missile Range, Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, and the Maui (Hawaii) Space Surveillance Complex; and the AF Space Fence at Redstone (Ala.) Arsenal and Army Garrison at Kwajalein Atoll. https://www.newsherald.com/news/20200606/pensacola-bids-for-space-command-hq