Theresa Hitchens is the Space and Air Force reporter at Breaking Defense. The former Defense News editor was a senior research associate at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). Before that, she spent six years in Geneva, Switzerland as director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
A sci-fi geek, voracious reader, enthusiastic cook, dabbler in poetry, Theresa is also the proud mom of a wonderful young man by the name of Nicholas.
thitchens@breakingmedia.com
The new, tripartite Space Force Generation readiness model will create “a more experienced, capable, and threat-focused crew force,” according to an internal memo obtained by Breaking Defense.
NGA chief Frank Whitworth defended his agency’s role in Ground Moving Target Indicator operations to Breaking Defense, as sources say there’s tension behind the scenes.
If a a new department or, alternatively, a “National Space Agency,” were to be established, the DIU-supported report recommends that it be modeled on the Department of Energy (DoE), rather than the Department of Homeland Security that still suffers from an abundance of red tape.
The strategy notes that contracts with commercial space providers could, if deemed necessary, “enable prioritization of Department requirements and capability needs over other commercial clients in specific situations.”
The SPACECOM list includes almost $704 million for three unnamed classified programs, as well as $90 million to fund a trio of classified Navy electronic warfare-based “counterspace” capabilities.
More than a dozen sources tell Breaking Defense that tensions between the NGA and Space Force are rising on commercial ISR, with White House officials watching closely.
The bipartisan spending package, released early this morning, increases defense funding by $27 billion over the previous year’s enacted budget and includes a number of key provisions the department had requested.
The executive branch is “still talking through exactly what the scope and scale” of any new NRO program would be, but the “intent” is to “more cost effectively leverage” commercial capabilities “over the longer term,” said NRO’s head of commercial programs Pete Muend.
“The envisioned lunar railroad network could transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface,” according to Northrop Grumman’s announcement.
“This will be a modified mission from the Victus Nox mission,” David Ryan, space portfolio manager at the Defense Innovation Unit said, noting that “there are two parts of the mission, and DIU is working on a single part with Space Safari.”
Troy Meink, NRO principal deputy director, explained that the decline in launch costs is one of two critical factors in allowing NRO to begin to diversify its on-orbit force structure to include both “large and small satellites” using multiple orbital domains.
China is conducting regional maritime activities “under the cloud of a technical or scientific research, but we think it’s certainly multi-mission to include military” operations, Gen. Gregory Guillot, head of NORTHCOM/NORAD said.
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
