Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, says the US Navy’s future frigate “needs to be a multi-mission capable ship” and gives Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian a status update on the program, including its recent request for information soliciting “industry’s ideas on what the frigate should be able to do,” during an August 2017 interview at CSBA headquarters in Washington.

Rear Adm. James Robb, USN Ret., president of the National Training and Simulation Association — an affiliate subsidiary of the National Defense Industrial Association — says the best training is where simplicity meets a good user interface, and discusses the organization’s mission, goals and more during an Aug. 2, 2017, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian. The interview was conducted at NTSA’s 2017 iFest conference in northern Virginia.

Tom Karako, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Program and senior fellow in its International Security Program, discusses North Korea’s most recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, its implications for US and Asian-Pacific security, and the Pentagon’s most recent Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (or THAAD) test during an Aug. 2, 2017, interview at CSIS headquarters in Washington.

Dean Pianta, solutions manager at Adobe Systems Federal, shares his predictions for the future of e-learning, stresses the importance of social learning when training teams, and more during an interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian at the National Training and Simulation Association’s iFest 2017 conference in Alexandria, Va.

Sae Schatz, PhD, director of the US Defense Department’s Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, says US warfighters need to be “lifelong learners” to maintain readiness in an “increasingly volatile” world, discusses ADL’s history and role in training and simulation, and more during an interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian at the National Training and Simulation Association’s iFest 2017 conference in Alexandria, Va. ADL was a co-sponsor of the event.

Todd Harrison, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ defense-budget analysis director, and Gabriel Coll, program manager and research assistant at CSIS’ Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, discuss the think tank’s Future Years Defense Program tool, which lets users instantly generate graphs that make it easier to compare current and historic budget data, during an Aug. 2, 2017, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian. The tool, co-developed by Coll, Loren Lipsey, Shivani Pandya and Kayla Keller, is available at http://analytics.csis.org/fydpbetaone.

Penn Arthur, CEO and co-founder of Inhance Digital, discusses the proof of concept app the company created for the US Air Force Research Laboratory, which uses mixed-reality technology to help train Air Force maintainers, during an August 3, 2017, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian. The interview was conducted at the iFest 2017 conference in Alexandria, Va.

Frank Kendall, former US under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics during the Obama administration, discusses his concerns with the Pentagon’s recent report detailing how to break up his old office into two parts, shares advice for his successor, former Textron Systems CEO Ellen Lord, and more during an Aug. 4, 2017, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian. The interview was conducted at Kendall’s northern Virginia home.

Heather Wilson, PhD, Secretary of the US Air Force, says predictability is the service’s greatest need, discusses the proposed FY18 federal budget’s implications for readiness and modernization, announces “the details of a tiered aviation bonus system” designed to incentivize pilot retention “where we need them most,” and more at the Air Force Association’s AFA Breakfast Series: Capitol Hill Edition event on June 5, 2017. The event was held at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington.