STARCOM Opens New Headquarters Building in Florida

Space Training and Readiness Command officially opened its new headquarters building in Florida this month, as the field command starts to move in earnest from Colorado. The process will hopefully be complete by 2027, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna told lawmakers March 25.

Since it was established in 2021, STARCOM has been temporarily headquartered at Petersen Space Force Base, Colo. As one of the Space Force’s three field commands, it’s responsible for educating and training Guardians, developing the service’s doctrine and tactics, and testing Space Force capabilities.

Bentivegna told members on the House Appropriation Committee that the command held a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 10 at a new headquarters “annex” on Patrick Space Force Base, located just a few miles from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Space Force’s main launch facilities on the East Coast.

“That was just the first phase; in May, the second phase of the annex will open,” Bentivegna said, adding that it will increase the amount of STARCOM staff at Patrick.

The Department of the Air Force selected Patrick as STARCOM’s new home in 2023. The Florida base location beat out five other bases for STARCOM headquarters—Buckley, Peterson, and Schriever Space Forces Bases in Colorado; and Vandenberg Space Force Base and Los Angeles Air Force Base in California.

The command started its move in July 2025, with Maj. Gen. James E. Smith taking the helm of STARCOM. But to this point, the headquarters staff has been small and scattered across Patrick. The new headquarters building sets the stage for the move to pick up steam.

“This is a symbol of momentum as we move in,” Smith, said in a release. “We now have a place we can call home. It’s going to enable us to continue to get after our mission.”

Bentivegna said that “we’re hoping to have several hundred more people there this summer, with the full move from Colorado executed and completed by the end of 2027.”

STARCOM is conducting a “phased approach” for the move to work with the local community around Patrick to assess “what’s the childcare look like; what’s the housing situation look like,” Bentivegna said.

The aging infrastructure on Patrick will have to be modernized as well, he said.

“When you look at Patrick and Cape Canaveral, the buildings might be old, but the views are amazing,” Bentivegna joked, then reassured lawmakers that the service will improve the infrastructure “to make sure there are clean, safe, and healthy conditions, and that [Guardian’s] quality of life and quality of service is such that we can retain the talent.”

Bentivegna said in February that the Space Force needs to more than double its size, pointing out that that the service had already surpassed its recruiting goals for fiscal 2026 by reaching 125 percent of its goal.

“I think we are about 10,500 Guardians today, so when I say double the size, it [will be] about 24,000 over the next five to seven years,” he told committee members. Bentivegna added that having STARCOM located on the East Coast will be key to doubling the force.

“The scouting of that talent that will be coming into the service, the technical training, the professional military education—all of that will be the responsibility of Space Training and Readiness Command that’s headquartered down there.”