On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. Rocket Ron Epstein of Bank of America Securities, Sash Tusa of the independent equity research firm Agency Partners, and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic advisory consultancy join host Vago Muradian discuss a down week on Wall Street ending in a hard sell off; Airbus and Embraer release their order and delivery figures; Pentagon acquisition and sustainment undersecretary Dr. Bill LaPlante’s decision to rescind a key approval for the the Milestone B approval of the US Air Force’s Sentinel Next Generation Strategic Deterrent program led by Northrop Grumman; the European Air Safety Agency has ordered inspections of Rolls Royce engines on Airbus 350-1000 jets after a fire on a Cathay Pacific airliner; Boeing’s unionized workers will vote Sept. 12 on whether to strike; the Air Force will buy from Boeing more of Leonardo’s MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopters; NASA prepares to return the Boeing’s StarLiner spacecraft to earth; with the Pentagon’s decision to extend the lifespan of the F-35 Lightning II fighter program from 2077 to 2088, the total program cost is up to $2 trillion even as unit prices for the jets are coming down; Philippine’s interest in 40 new combat aircraft.
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…Cavas traveled to Mobile, Alabama last week for an up-close look at what Austal USA’s shipyard is working on – and the scope of their projects is impressive. He spoke with shipyard president Michelle Kruger about where the shipyard is now, where it’s headed and what challenges she’s dealing with.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.
This is part 2 of a deep dive into NASA’s plan to destroy the 420-metric-tonne International Space Station by de-orbiting. This episode is about the geo-strategic consequences and risks associated with de-orbiting and alternative ideas for the space station after 2030. Part 1, “Space Technology: Holes Bubble Up In NASA’s Narrative On And Plan To De-Orbit The Space Station”, posted in July. Laura Winter speaks with Kazuto Suzuki, a member of the National Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, the Government of Japan, Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at International House of Japan; and Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”.
On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss what to expect from Congress when they return to DC for 13 days before recessing for the election; update on presidential, Senate and House races with only nine weeks left to Election Day; whether Ukraine’s Kursk offensive will prove a costly miscalculation as Russia advances on Donbas; Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to shuffle his cabinet as Kyiv continues to lobby Washington and its allies to allow use of Western weapons against Russia; the US government alleges Russian and Chinese interference in American politics; takeaways from National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s Beijing visit as a Chinese ship again collides with a Filipino one; and Bibi Netanyahu brushes aside mass protests demanding as well as what’s said to be the final US-Egypt-Qatar proposal to end of the Gaza war.
DoD’s Replicator initiative has been something of an enigma from the start. Veteran analyst Dr. Ted Harshberger joins us to explain where Replicator is now, what comes next, and how (or if) it fits with NGAD. Plus a 1985 munition proposal you never heard of. And, of course, we have headlines in airpower, all thanks to GE!
On today’s Strategy Series program, sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, David Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, discusses his new book with longtime researcher Mary Brooks — “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion and America’s Struggle to Defend the West” — why leaders failed to accurately understand China and Russia’s rise and ambitions, limits on Western power to shape Beijing and Moscow, the best approach to deterring them, whether we have transitioned from new Cold War to a new state of war, analysis of the Biden administration’s handling of Russia’s nuclear saber rattling, and how to counter China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as they work more closely together to undermine the West with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian.
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 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