Buckeye Reporter

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the Senate Floor, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called on the Biden administration to choose Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Dayton as the 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.

“There is no better place in the country than Ohio for the Space Command Headquarters and additional Space Force units. Our state is ready to lead our military into the next frontier,” said Brown on the Senate Floor. “From the Wright brothers, to American heroes like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, the story of modern aviation was written in Ohio. And our state continues to lead the country in aerospace innovation, and in military service – we have nearly a million veterans in Ohio.”

The speech follows a letter Brown sent to President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, and Chief of Space Operations General B. Chance Saltzman with U.S. Representatives David Joyce (R-OH-14), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Max Miller (R-OH-07), Joyce Beatty (D-OH-03), Shontel Brown (D-OH-11), Emilia Sykes (D-OH-13) and Greg Landsman (D-OH-01). In the letter, the lawmakers write that the numerous industry and university parties in the state -- along with existing U.S. Air Force and NASA bases and facilities – make Ohio ideally suited to host U.S. Space Command and Space Force units – should the Department of Defense (DoD) choose to re-locate the Command HQ. Ten leading economic development organizations and chambers of commerce in Ohio also wrote to the Administration supporting Brown’s effort.

Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:

There is no better place in the country than Ohio for the Space Command Headquarters and their additional Space Force units. Our state is ready to lead our military into the next frontier.

From the Wright brothers, to American heroes like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, the story of modern aviation was written in Ohio. And our state continues to lead the country in aerospace innovation, and in military service – we have nearly a million veterans in Ohio.

Think about all the important military institutions we have across the state:

We have Wright-Patt with the Air Force Research Lab and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center and the Space Force’s National Space Intelligence Center.

We’re home to the 88th Air Base Wing of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, where they support our military aircraft, engines, munitions, electronics, and cyber weapon systems. We have the Air Force Materiel Command that keeps Air Force weapon systems ready for war.

Wright-Patterson has been a leader in military aviation development since the time of airplane inventors like the Wright brothers. It’s positioned to lead us into the future.

And just 150 miles away is NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, and NASA Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky.

These are the facilities researching and developing and testing the innovative technologies taking us to the next frontier.

We have the 178th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group at the Springfield Air National Guard Base. And we have our Air Guard and Reserve bases, from Toledo to Springfield to Mansfield.

It only makes sense to base our country’s space military leadership near these important assets. They make Ohio the right location for both the U.S. Space Command headquarters and additional Space Force units.

And think about the opportunities for collaboration here.

Having Space Command located alongside the Air Force Research Lab will assist in the creation of new space technologies and capabilities. The National Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patt is already the Space Force’s intelligence center.

Close proximity to NASA Glenn and the Armstrong Testing Facility will allow Space Command and Space Force to benefit from their unmatched experience and expertise in space missions. The Armstrong Testing Facility performs specialized research and testing that can’t be done anywhere else in the world.

Locating Space Command and additional Space Force assets in Ohio also means that the world’s leading trade schools, research universities, and federal laboratories in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois are nearby, ready to work together and provide a pipeline of workers to be on the front line of the next frontier of modern warfare. This proximity is unmatched.

Ohio alone has a network of world-class research universities and community colleges –14 four-year public universities and their 24 branch campuses, 23 two-year community & technical colleges, nearly 60 four-year private universities.

Moving Space Command and Space Force units here would be good for the military – and good for Ohio and our economy.

Ohioans know how important aerospace sector jobs are to our state.

There is a direct line that runs from GE Aviation in Cincinnati, through the base and aerospace companies in Dayton, and around Columbus, and up to NASA in Cleveland, touching thousands of Ohioans, reaching every region of Ohio.

With the CHIPS Act, we’re bringing 10,000 good-paying, high-tech jobs to central Ohio, making semiconductors.

And if you don’t think this play a role in our national security, ask the Chinese Communist Party if they would rather the chips for our cars, phones, missiles, planes, and satellites be made overseas.

We’re already the center of the country for aerospace jobs. We’re going to be a major hub for semiconductors and manufacturing.

Locating our space military leadership near the domestic hub of both semiconductor and aerospace innovation is good for Ohio’s economy, and it makes sense for the military.

The military challenges of the future demand that our servicemembers have the most innovative, cutting-edge technology. Ohio, and the entire Midwest, are making that technology.

This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s not ideological.

We’ve always worked together to support and grow these jobs, and to invest in Ohio’s military installations. This is no different.

Ohio Representatives from both sides of the aisle support this effort. Together, we’re calling on the President to bring new space missions to Ohio.

It’s simple: Ohio stands ready to meet the space-related national security challenges the United States faces, now and in the future.

This is how you bury the term “rust belt.”

We’re burying it with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

We’re burying it with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

We’re burying it with the National Space Intelligence Center.

We’re burying it with NASA.

And we are going to bury it with US Space Command and US Space Force coming to Ohio.

Original source can be found here.