Peterson Air Force Base – The Air Force said today it will move its space surveillance operations from Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Gen. Kevin P. Chilton said 140 staff, including civilians and contractors, will move.
Chilton said his command’s Joint Space Operations Center is already at Vandenberg and it makes sense to combine the operations.
The first personnel will move in January with the transfer complete by July.
The headquarters of the Space Command, which includes 40,000 military and civilian staff, will remain at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs.
The change illustrates a decline in importance for Cheyenne Mountain, which was the heart of the U.S. missile defense system during the Cold War. Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the North American Aerospace Command, in July announced that NORAD’s missile control center was moving to Peterson.
Chilton said the change was needed because the threat from space has increased as more and more countries develop the ability to launch satellites.
“We have a duty to secure the entire space domain not just for our own military but for the benefit of the free world,” Chilton said.
