[Jtsummers]

This is the strangest part to me. They will spend millions and several years to dismantle a system that, realistically, could also just be abandoned. Not that we should leave more random, unused equipment out in the world, but if this were really about cost savings, and given this administration does not care at all about the environment, then leaving the equipment in place was the best option by their stated rationale.

[fanatic2pope]

If they just abandon them then a subsequent administration can simply re-activate them without being forced to spend even more money.

[Sharlin]

Astronaut meme: it was never about cost savings

[insane_dreamer]

it's not strange or random idiocy

they are intentionally making it difficult for the next administration to flip the switch back on to monitoring again; it would now require $100s of millions to reconstruct the system, money that may not be easy to get congress/taxpayers to agree to