On today’s program, sponsored by HII, Sam Bendett of the Center for Naval Analyses discusses Russia’s claim to have taken Bakhmut and Ukraine’s stance they are still control parts of the devastated city, why Wagner Group mercenary and convict force boss Yevgeny Prigozhin isn’t getting credit, how F-16s for Ukraine might change the next phase of the war, the high cost of Russia’s long-range strikes against Kyiv and Ukraine’s successful defense against those strikes, and an unmanned systems update; and Byron Callan of the independent Washington research firm Capital Alpha Partners discusses the prospects for a deal that averts a US debt default and what that deal might mean for defense spending given what happened in the wake of 2010 debt crisis that resulted in the Budget Control Act of 2011, what analysis of 2011-2016 tells is about what might happen next, and a look at the week ahead with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian.
