Theresa Hitchens is the Senior reporter, Space 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.
The company's announcement did not explain how the new National Security Group would change, if at all, Blue Origin's current organization and/or practices under its national security unit headed since August by Tom Martin.
'Unsettled' is a polite word for 2025 in the space domain.
Cyber resilience has become a frontline mission for the US military. Breaking Defense’s new eBook rounds up key reporting from the 2025 Alamo ACE conference with the latest developments in cyber offense and defense.
With the new awards, a total of 2,100 firms have been qualified by the Missile Defense Agency to compete for future SHIELD tech development contracts.
Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab USA, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris Technologies each won awards to "deliver and operate 18 space vehicles" for the Space Development Agency's Tranche 3 Tracking Layer.
The policy is light on language regarding security issues — with the most specific provision reiterating Trump's Golden Dome push for a comprehensive air and missile defense shield.
"I look forward to working with [Air Force] Secretary Meink and the service to make sure the language in the NDAA is fully implemented," Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers, R.-Ala., told Breaking Defense today.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
For ICEYE, the German deal is the latest in a handful of high-profile sales to European militaries as the continent moves out on a collective effort to establish "strategic autonomy" in from the United States in the space domain.
CSIS says the delivery gap in THAAD ground-based interceptors comes after the Army used scores to help defend Israel during the June 2025 Israel-Iran conflict.
Gen. Gregory Gagnon, head of Space Force Combat Forces Command, said that currently "40 percent of my units do not have a realistic trainer in order to practice on them."
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy said that if he had "a Christmas wish list" for acquisition reform, "funding flexibility" would be at the top of it.
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
The bilateral rendezvous and proximity operation "illustrates France's ability to conduct dynamic and responsible operations to deter adversaries from acting against its space interests," according to France's Space Command.
Interested firms have until Jan. 9 to respond to a Space Force request for information about new wide-field-of-view cameras for a SILENTBARKER replacement constellation.
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office already is seeing an impact from the congressional impasse on reauthorizing Pentagon use of Small Business Innovation Program grants, Director Kelly Hammett said.
"So the focus is going to be on delivering AMTI [airborne moving target indication] capability very quickly," Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said.