Marine Corps Capt. Christian Thiessen currently serves as a Service Chief's Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, VA. His work involves the integration of cyber, electronic warfare, and space operations with Marine Corps activities. Under his leadership, his teams have achieved numerous operational firsts within U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. With nine years of service, he has deployed multiple times to Southeast Asia, collaborating with the U.S. Navy, Special Operations Forces, and treaty allies.
In 2016 he earned his commission after receiving a BS in Aerospace Engineering from San Diego State University. His academic journey continued, culminating in an MS in Information Sciences and an MS in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2022. Thiessen's service has been recognized with the Copernicus Award for excellence in C41 and he has received several accolades from the Marine Corps. Outside of his professional life, Thiessen enjoys spending his time in the mountains, cooking delicious meals with friends and family, or volunteering in the community.
I look back on my time at NPS with deep appreciation—curiosity, collaboration, and hard work were not only encouraged, but rewarded. Before attending NPS, I hadn’t worked directly with Army SOF, Navy SEALs, or NATO allies. Being in an environment where my ideas were rigorously challenged in constructive, academic ways was one of the most formative experiences I’ve had as a young officer. The NPS environment helped me learn how to lead with humility and adapt quickly in complex settings. I’ve carried these lessons forward into my current role—especially the emphasis on interdisciplinary thinking and open collaboration—and they’ve enabled my teams to tackle challenges and achieve outcomes I wouldn’t have imagined when I first joined the Marine Corps.
One of NPS’ greatest strengths is exposing students to challenges outside their own military specialties. Embedding students and faculty within operational units ensures their work remains directly connected to the Fleet and Force, rather than drifting into academic abstraction. Service members—especially those who will go on to serve in the supporting establishment—need to remain grounded in operational realities. Everything in the military begins and ends at the pointy end of the spear, and these efforts ensure NPS research is focused where it matters most. By closing the gap between research and application, we accelerate innovation and ensure the technologies we develop are timely, relevant, and mission ready.
When students collaborate with both industry and operational commands, it creates a feedback loop that accelerates innovation and relevance. Service members have unique insight into the challenges and gaps within their communities. By engaging directly with those building solutions—whether that’s a fleet commander or a defense startup—students can help shape more effective technologies while also deepening their own understanding of how innovation is implemented. The result is research that doesn’t sit on a shelf—it drives impact.
The Detachable Drone Hijacker was designed to be modular, platform-agnostic, and precise. It can provide a sniper-like capability against adversarial UAS threats with its payload mounted on multiple platforms. For example, a surveillance quadcopter for agile response or an existing program of record like ScanEagle for extended missions. We wanted to show that defending against drones doesn’t have to be limited to fixed, static solutions. A truly resilient defense-in-depth approach requires mobility, range, and layered response options. This device is one example of how we can shift from reactive, point-defense systems to proactive, distributed ones—capable of defending critical assets such as airfields and command posts, even in complex threat environments.
NPS is an early-warning system for the defense industrial base. Every year, thousands of students—many with recent operational experience—conduct research in fields ranging from engineering to acquisition to data science. These cohorts are inherently cross-functional, bringing diverse military and academic perspectives to bear on emerging challenges. Many defense companies are locked into requirements-driven timelines that can’t keep up with operational needs. By engaging with NPS—whether by sponsoring capstones, supporting thesis work, or collaborating with faculty—industry can tap into high-velocity innovation that’s mission-focused and warfighter-informed. It’s one of the fastest ways to develop relevant, field-ready capabilities.
While there is a visible shift toward attritable, low-cost systems, it isn’t happening fast enough to meet the pace of battlefield innovation. As the Russia-Ukraine war has shown, the drone-versus-counter-drone arms race is moving too quickly for traditional acquisition cycles to keep up. The Detachable Drone Hijacker is a mindset shift: it’s low-cost, modular, and adaptable, designed to deliver precision effects without the need for expensive or overbuilt platforms. Its flexibility allows it to be forward-deployed, repositioned quickly, and used in distributed formations—something most legacy counter-UAS systems can’t offer. It’s built for the kind of dynamic, contested environments we’re seeing today and likely to face tomorrow.
