That may not be a big deal to most of you but it's a big deal here in Colorado Springs. At the moment, US Space Command, Air Force Space Command, Army Space Command and Navy Space Command are located here or have major offices, along with NORAD. Northern Command is scheduled to stand up here soon and someone though that was too many generals in one place. As things stand now, the Commander US Space Command (can't call him a CinC anymore due to recent guidance) will also be the Commander Strategic Command (perhaps under the new title Global Command) and will be located at Offutt AFB, Nebraska along with some of his staff. The operational staff will probably stay here.

All of these reorgs are making my job more difficult even though we've known it was coming for some time. Here's an article from Aviation Week discussing the issues, including possible negative effects on military space.

Joining Space and Strategic Commands Comes With a Price

By William B. Scott/Aviation Week & Space Technology

14-Jun-2002 12:50 PM U.S. EDT

Pentagon officials are still weighing the pros and cons of combining U.S. Space Command and Strategic Command, but insiders claim the decision has essentially been made and could be announced any day. If they're correct, the space commander's flag--and some headquarters staff--could move to Offutt AFB, Neb., home of Strategic Command, by Oct. 1.

Officially, the proposal is still in the discussion stage, and a final decision is pending. Although U.S. Space Command leaders aren't talking about its status, some military officers and contractor executives said the merger "is a done deal."

When viewed from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's perspective, the combination is probably more than simply putting Stratcom and USSC under a single four-star general. The resulting organization would be a new command, better able to deal with 21st century threats than USSC and Stratcom can separately. Long ago, Rumsfeld identified five threats the U.S. will face in the coming years: missiles, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), terrorism, cyber and attacks on U.S. space resources.

The new national entity--tentatively named "Global Operations Command" or GOCom--would directly address three of those threats through missile defense, cyber operations (computer network defense and attack) and protection of space resources. It also would have a central role in WMD issues since GOCom would be "keeper of the keys" for nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles--bombers, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles--a retired general suggested.

"If you listen to Rumsfeld, there's method to what he's trying to do," the former senior officer said. "We shouldn't call this new command the 'combination of Strategic and Space commands.' They're just going into a new command . . . which is part of Rumsfeld's 'transformation.' That makes sense, because it's a new organizational structure aligned with the threats."

Ironically, merging USSC with Stratcom runs counter to primary objectives of the so-called Space Commission, which Rumsfeld led prior to his appointment as Defense secretary. That commission's recommendations were aimed at consolidating and streamlining U.S. military space organizations, ensuring milspace would be integrated better with traditional combat units. Conclusions focused mainly on the Air Force, though, saying little about the USSC commander-in-chief (Cincspace) role.

"U.S. SPACE IS the only command that has [most of] its pieces in one place," a contractor executive said. Air Force (AFSPC) and Army space commands are on "the same piece of real estate" as USSC. All three are located at Peterson AFB, Colo. A multimillion-dollar building being constructed adjacent to AFSPC headquarters was expected to house USSC staff and Army space headquarters.

With the Pentagon giving a thumbs-up to an environmental assessment study last week, it appears likely that a new Northern Command will also be located at Peterson AFB. It would encompass the joint U.S./Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command headquarters, as well as a number of Air Force, Army and Navy elements devoted to homeland defense.

Putting Northern Command at Peterson is raising political hackles in Washington, though, where some congressmen are starting to grumble about Colorado reaping undue benefits by hosting several major military commands. Indeed, those sensitivities may play into the Pentagon's leaning toward moving USSC to Omaha, Neb., rather than moving Stratcom to Colorado Springs.

"You can't have three four-star [generals] in Colorado Springs and none in Omaha. Politics just won't let that happen," an Air Force officer said.

Most of the milspace experts polled by Aviation Week & Space Technology were convinced that moving USSC to Offutt AFB would "be dumb." However, sending Cincspace to Offutt might make sense if most of his staff stayed at Peterson. With Air Force, Army and Navy space commands either having a headquarters or a significant detachment of personnel at Peterson, next door to the USSC headquarters, coordination of critical issues is much easier and smoother than if they were scattered around the country.

As a nation, "We've gone to a lot of trouble to get all the [milspace] pieces in one place--the first time for any Cincdom," a space command official said. "Why would we then move the U.S. Space staff to Omaha, just to be where the Cinc is?"

If Cincspace and CincStratcom are eventually the same person, one possible way to ensure that milspace is not adversely affected is to create a Deputy Cincspace (DCincspace) based at Peterson AFB. Critical elements of today's U.S. Space Command staff should also remain here, according to those close to Stratcom/USSC merger deliberations. Under that scenario, the DCinc would oversee USSC's current intelligence (J2), operations (J3) and plans (J5) staff, which would remain at Peterson. The manpower and personnel (J1) and logistics (J5) functions could move to Offutt AFB and be absorbed into Stratcom's equivalent offices. No suggestions were made concerning movement or retention of the command and control systems (J6) or program and resources (J8) offices. USSC and Norad do not have a joint training and education (J7) function, according to a Norad spokesman.

TODAY, ALL BUT TWO of USSC's top staff officers are "double-hatted," also serving as commanders of the Norad "J" equivalent. In other words, a flag officer who fills the USSC J2 slot is also the Norad J2. Moving the entire USSC staff to Offutt AFB apparently would necessitate appointing several new Norad joint staff leaders.

A potential negative or unintended consequence of absorbing USSC into Stratcom and moving Cincspace to Offutt AFB is diminished clout of the milspace community within the Army, Navy and Air Force. That loss would reverse gains made as a result of the Space Commission report, and could spark a backlash in Congress. Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) was the driving force behind the commission's creation, and has berated the Pentagon and Air Force repeatedly for relegating milspace to second-class-citizen status. His concerns are probably well-founded.

"The Cinc of [GOCom] would definitely not spend as much time on space as Cincspace does now," a milspace consultant said. "He'll have a lot of other responsibilities. There will be a [negative] impact on space; no question about it."

Already, there are signs that milspace would be semi-shelved within the Army's organizational structure. Army officials have floated the idea of rolling its Space and Missiles Defense Command into Force Command, ostensibly to save money. "They see it as simply doing the same thing [the Pentagon] is doing to Cincspace--folding 'space' into another entity to reduce the bureaucracy," he added. That would effectively reduce Army space to irrelevancy, just as its stature was growing in the wake of successes in Afghanistan. "It's one of the negative fallouts of a merger [by USSC and Stratcom]."

Peripherally related to the potential command merger, a Defense Science Board "Summer Study" this year may address the Pentagon's increasing dependency on space--a response to Rumsfeld's memo last month, questioning that reliance. One outcome of such a study could be a recommendation to devote more attention and resources to protecting the nation's milspace assets.

WHETHER A NEW GOCom Cinc would be able to devote the necessary level of attention to space-protection issues, then be motivated to fight for funds to implement any protective measures, is a looming question for many in the milspace community. Most believe physically separating USSC from other service space command headquarters will be detrimental, regardless of the potential counter-threat advantages GOCom might yield.

"Just as we got [milspace] pulled together, and 'space' proved to be so effective in the Afghanistan [antiterrorism] operation--and there's now a widespread understanding of its contributions--what do we do? We take it apart," the consultant said.