FAIRBORN — Ohio leaders are pushing to bring the future of America’s Space Force to the Miami Valley.
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United States Senator Bernie Moreno announced at the annual Defense & Aerospace Forum that he’s among those calling for the country’s Space Academy to be established at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
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Moreno, joined by Congressman Mike Turner, presented his pitch at the forum at Wright State University on Monday. It came after members of the State of National Defense panel explained why the development of new technology and cultivating the minds that will make it happen is so vital.
“We want our F-47s, B-21s, CCAs to know exactly what the threat is to categorize and defeat those threats as necessary,” Col. Tyson Wetzel, Commander of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, said.
The Space Academy, as Moreno detailed, would be located off the Avenue of Heroes, between Wright State’s campus and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
He added that the infrastructure is already in place to have the academy operational as early as next fall, with construction and a full enrollment of 5,000 students to follow.
Moreno made the pitch to President Trump himself and believes Ohio is the right fit for the academy and is hopeful a decision naming Ohio the location could come within several months.
“The question is, where does it physically belong? My point of view is that it belongs right here, where two bicycle mechanics taught the world how to fly and the people that will come here, the students, the brilliant minds from America, will come here to Wright State University and Wright Field and teach the world how to sustain a presence in space,” Moreno said.
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