HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Nov. 19, 2020) – The Redstone Region is honored and excited by the latest news that we were chosen by the U.S. Air Force as a finalist for hosting the headquarters of U.S. Space Command. Huntsville and the surrounding area has the space legacy, business/government/community ecosystem and unmatched civic support to enable Space Command to forge the Nation’s domination of space. We are grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate why Redstone should be selected first among all others.

We are very grateful to our elected leaders, including our Congressional Delegation which is led by Senator Richard Shelby, Governor Kay Ivey, Mayor Tommy Battle and all of the local elected leaders in the greater Redstone Region of North Alabama and South Central Tennessee who support Redstone.

Redstone provides all the assets necessary to assure the US Space Command’s success, including military housing, health care, childcare, commissary, and personnel and logistics support. The region also has a very favorable cost of living, being among the lowest of any technology-based military communities.

The support structure required to successfully execute the mission of the Space Command is here. Redstone is home to many of the nation’s key space and defense assets, including the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Strategic Forces Command headquarters, the majority of the Missile Defense Agency’s operations and a wide portfolio of specialized R&D capabilities addressing all aspects of space, missile and missile defense endeavors. Our region boasts the highest per capita concentration of engineering workforce in the US. Our universities offer research resources specifically tailored to address the most challenging problems facing both our military and other technology-centric agencies.

As the Space Command presses forward, other factors to consider include:

Our Aerospace/Defense Cluster is World Class

• 400 aerospace/defense companies.
• 80,000 employees in aerospace/defense.
• Cummings Research Park is the 2nd largest research park in the U.S.
• More than 30 of the top 40 U.S. defense companies.

Huntsville is the Low-Cost, High-Value Leader for Space

• Cost of living in the Huntsville Metro is 6.6 percent below the U.S. average.
• Energy costs are 9 percent lower than the U.S. average thanks to the good work of the TVA.
• State & local taxes are 33 percent lower than the U.S. average.

Federal, State, and Local Systems Support Business Growth

• Our Congressional delegation is extremely well positioned and cohesive in support of our growth, particularly in the Appropriations and Armed Services committees.
• Redstone Arsenal is a federal R&D campus with more than 70 entities including NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the Army Materiel Command, the Program Executive Offices for Army Aviation and Missiles & Space, Foreign Military Sales, and the majority of the DoD Missile Defense Agency.
• Area Development in 2020 ranked Alabama #5 for Cooperative & Responsive State Government, #5 for Favorable Regulatory Environment, #2 for Speed of Project Permitting and #6 Overall as the Best State for Doing Business.
• Local governments are investing in our success, including $360 million for roads and greenways, plus fiber to the home, retail and dining growth, residential and commercial development, and strategic investments in cyber, geospatial, energy, and biotech.

An Advanced Manufacturing and Talent Powerhouse

• A strong mix of commercial and defense manufacturing with recent wins from Aerojet Rocketdyne, BAE, Blue Origin, LG Electronics, GE Aviation, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, Navistar, and Polaris.
• Named a DoD “Defense Manufacturing Community” in August 2020 to accelerate the development of critical skills, research and development, and small business support to strengthen the national security innovation and manufacturing base.
• Area Development in 2020 ranked Alabama #6 for Competitive Labor Environment and #3 Workforce Training Programs.
• Focused K-12 programs with an emphasis on advanced manufacturing, cyber and engineering, including the Alabama School for Cyber Technology and Engineering.
• More than 30,000 students in our six post-secondary institutions.
• The University of Tennessee Space Institute, also known as UTSI, a satellite campus of the University of Tennessee located near Tullahoma, Tennessee, home of the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Center
• Calhoun Community College is #1 in the U.S. in number of 2-year advanced manufacturing degrees.
• The University of Alabama in Huntsville is #11 in the nation for NASA research funding and #28 for DoD research funding.

Support for Relocation

• Redstone has been on the winning side of 1995 and 2005 Base Realignment and Closure decisions, and the community has been very successful in recruiting more than 65 percent of personnel to transfer with their positions.
• Recent experience with the FBI’s strategic realignment of functions and personnel to Redstone has been very effective. Working in partnership with the community, the FBI was successful relocating nearly 100 percent of its TEDAC employees.

Contact:

Mike Ward
Senior Vice President, Government & Public Affairs
256-535-2030
[email protected]