Kevin DeSanto, co-founder and manager director of the investment bank KippsDeSanto, discusses takeaways from the firm’s 2018 survey of merger-and-acquisiton trends in the aerospace, defense and government sectors during a June 2018 interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington.
Amb. Pedro Morenés, Spain’s former defense minister and its current ambassador to the US, praises the deterrent power of unity, and discusses the nuances of NATO’s two-percent-of-GDP defense spending rule, how the ask is received by Spanish citizens, what global security risks should be on NATO’s threat radar, the security implications of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on European aluminum and steel exports, and much more during a June 13, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington. The interview was conducted at the 2018 EU Security & Defense Washington Symposium that was co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the European Union Delegation to the US.
Abigail Grace, a research associate in the Center for a New American Security think tank’s Asia-Pacific Security Program, says “it’s absolutely essential” for the US to “maintain cooperation, coordination and close discussions with” its Indo-Pacific allies, expresses concern about the lack of “a concrete” North Korean denuclearization deal following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un, and more during a June 2018 interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor at the think tank’s “Strategic Competition: Maintaining the Edge” conference in Washington.
Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, USAF Ret., dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, discusses establishing the US Space Force President Trump called for on June 18, why making it a standalone service is a question of “when” not “if,” how the Pentagon should approach its development and coordinate with other government agencies, and more during a June 29, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in northern Virginia.
On this week’s episode of the Defense & Aerospace Business Report podcast, sponsored by Bell, we discuss the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels, the Trump-Putin meeting later in July, the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee’s defense-spending bill, Australia’s selection of BAE’s Type 26 frigate for its SEA 5000 future frigate program and much more. Our guests include Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council, Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners, Ron Epstein, PhD, of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Evelyn Farkas, PhD, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia in the Obama administration who is now with the Atlantic Council, Steven Grundman of the Grundman Advisory and the Atlantic Council, and Sash Tusa of Agency Partners.
James Lewis, PhD, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discusses the implications of China’s cyber theft of the US Navy’s Sea Dragon hypersonic submarine-launched missile and electronic warfare files, DoD cybersecurity reforms, US Cyber Command’s reemergence and elevation to a combatant command, the need for a national declaratory cyber retaliation strategy, and much more in a wide-ranging, June 2018 interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian at the think tank’s headquarters in Washington.
Samuel Bendett, an associate research analyst in the Center for Naval Analyses’ Russia Studies Program and a fellow in Russia studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, discusses the buzz surrounding Russia’s Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, the failure of its Uran-9 unmanned ground vehicle program following secret combat testing in Syria, the outlook for Russian submarine and unmanned underwater vehicle innovation, and more during a June 27, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington.
Jorge Benitez, director of the Atlantic Council think tank’s NATOSource blog and a senior fellow in its Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, discusses what to expect from the 2018 NATO Summit in Brussels, what President Donald Trump’s’ strategic goals should be both there and at his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin later in July, how Trump’s diplomatic language may threaten the alliance and aide Putin’s efforts to disempower it, US Defense Secretary James Mattis’ role in American foreign policy, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide’s June 26 remarks at the think tank and more in an interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian taped immediately after her speech in Washington.
Welcome to the Defense & Aerospace Report Interviews Podcast, sponsored by L3 Technologies. On this episode, Bob Work, former deputy defense secretary who is now defense counselor at the Center for a New American Security, discusses China’s three-pronged strategy to offset US military advantages that includes espionage to shrink the time needed to develop new systems, employing a “system-destruction” approach to warfare, and attacking first to overwhelm defenses, Beijing’s capabilities and ways Washington can respond during a wide-ranging, June 22, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington. The interview was conducted on the sidelines of CNAS’ annual conference, this year titled, “Strategic Competition: Maintaining the Edge.”
In advance of next month’s NATO Summit, Ine Eriksen Søreide, Norway’s minister of foreign affairs, stresses the vital importance of alliance unity, says NATO should highlight its adaptability to an evolving security environment at the Brussels meeting, highlights her nation’s recent defense investments — including 52 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets (six of which have been delivered), five Boeing P-8 Poseidon military aircraft and four submarines — and much more during a wide-ranging, June 26, 2018, address and subsequent Q&A with Damon Wilson, executive vice president of the Atlantic Council think tank, at its offices in Washington.