On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. Rocket Ron Epstein of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Sash Tusa of the independent equity research firm Agency Partners, and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic Advisory consultancy join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to review the week on world markets, debt ceiling watch, Babcock’s charge on its fixed-price contract on its new generation Type 31 frigate, new leadership at Leonardo and Bell, Lockheed Martin first quarter 2023 earnings and what to expect as the group reports, a look ahead to Airbus returns, impact of limited industrial capacity and how governments can help increase it, market implications of Russia’s increasing cyber as well as undersea espionage and intimidation, SpaceX’s maiden Starship flight and the merits of history’s biggest and most powerful rocket, and takeaways from the National Space Symposium.

On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. “Rocket” Ron Epstein of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Sash Tusa of the independent equity research firm Agency Partners, and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic Advisory consultancy join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to review the week on world markets as optimism of a “soft landing” for the US economy grows, the implications of strengthening British pound, the financial and market impact of revelations that the tail sections of 737 Max jets built over the past four years might contain defective components, the aftermath of French President Emmanuel Macron’s stance in the wake of his visit to Beijing, Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s agreement with China’s Xi Jinping to conduct trade directly in yuans and reals to undermine the US dollar, and the Pentagon’s new Defense Contract Finance Study.