Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…there have been numerous events, hearings and meetings discussing naval issues over the last few weeks–Vago Muradian joins
On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, former Pentagon Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim join host Vago Muradian to discuss House Speaker Mike Johnson’s future after Senate passage and President Biden’s signature of the Ukraine-Israel-Indo-Pacific supplemental, whether the amount is enough to help Kyiv win, Washington’s decision to transfer longer-range ATACMS missiles that have proven devastating against Russian targets, President Macron’s case for Europe to reduce reliance on America and China, the extent of Russian and Chinese infiltration of the European Parliament and German politics, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Beijing to urge cooperation as Chinese officials make clear Washington has to choose cooperation on its terms or confrontation, campus protests and their implications, the latest on Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.
The United States Air Force has embarked on a wide-ranging reoptimization, encompassing operations, organization, culture, and more. One of the service’s more influential Chiefs, General John Jumper, joins us to analyze the process and goals of remaking a military service while it is engaged around the world. Plus special analysis of the Air Force’s CCA
On this month’s Land Warfare program, sponsored by American Rheinmetall, Sam Bendett of the Center for Naval Analyses discusses importance of the $61 billion Ukraine supplemental role of longer range ATACMS weapons and their ability to strike deep behind Russian lines, whether Moscow will step up operations before US help arrives, and how Kyiv is developing the means to strike take counter strike into Russian territory; and Col. Gian Gentile, USA Ret., PhD, the senior historian at the RAND Corporation’s Arroyo Center, discusses the broader lessons of the Ukraine war and which are applicable to a China conflict, takeaways from Israel’s war in Gaza, a response to the latest claims that the tank is dead, the US Army’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific, the Ukraine war lessons, and the need to be honest about what technology can and can’t deliver in new weapon systems.
On today’s Strategy Series program, sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, former Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist who is now the president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association, discusses the trade group’s new “Vital Signs” report that serves as both a report card of US defense industrial health as well as a policy roadmap, inflation and supply chain challenges driven by high defense and commercial demand, the Pentagon’s first ever National Defense Industrial Strategy, whether the $95 billion supplemental for Ukraine, Israel-Gaza and the Indo-Pacific is enough to support allies and refill America’s depleted weapons stocks, and PPBE reform and the unique role of comptrollers in driving innovation.
On this week’s Technology Report, Mark Montgomery, a retired US Navy rear admiral who is now the senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the executive director of the Cyber Solarium 2.0 project, discusses Russia’s recent boasting about its intelligence gathering and probing attacks on US water infrastructure, why water infrastructure is being targeted and how Washington should respond, Microsoft’s vulnerabilities and ways to improve government-industry cooperation, how one man saved the internet and lessons to safeguard it in the future, securing the cyber supply chain, Iran’s cyber role, countering disinformation as House Inteligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner’s calls out GOP for parroting Russian propaganda, and takeaways from the multinational operational that defended Israel from massive Iranian missile and drone attack.
By Steve Deal As a new Lieutenant (junior grade) Navy pilot flying the P-3C Orion over the Indian Ocean in the early 1990s, I like many others was carefully trained in the art of “recognition, identification, and grouping” – or “RIGing” as most of us called the maneuver. RIGing was part of an assigned surveillance
By Christine Arakelian and Michael Rubin With threats from Russia, China, Iran and its proxies growing, developing strong ties with Armenia may seem like a low priority. It should not. Strong ties with small, democratic buffer states in dangerous neighborhoods create not liabilities but opportunities for diplomacy and conflict-resolution. President Joe Biden, like Barack Obama
By Mackenzie Eaglen When war broke out in Gaza and shortly thereafter Houthi fighters threatened shipping in the Red Sea, US Marine forces of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) were quickly routed to the area to reinforce allies. Since their deployment in October, this unit now faces an indefinite extension since the Navy does