On today’s program, sponsored by HII, Byron Callan of the independent Washington research firm Capital Alpha Partners discusses first quarter 2024 earnings; leading firms buy back more than $4 billion in stock as leading defense officials chide firms for the practice; the US Air Force’s decision to select General Atomics and Anduril to compete for Increment 1 of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and award Sierra Nevada a contract valued at $13 billion award to develop the successor to the E-4B “Nightwatch” Advanced Airborne Command Post; and a look at the week ahead with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian.
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 big drop on Wall Street; Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and more, earnings reports; the US Air Force picks Anduril and General Atomics as finalists for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft autonomous combat aircraft; British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak moves to increase defense spending; French President Emmanuel Macron’s case for greater European security and economic independence; and Boeing buys back a St. Louis factory from GKN.
Is it “Old Wine In A New Bottle” or is this push to increase defense spending and investment in developing new capabilities, including space the mark of something new? While the United States has submitted a comparatively humble defense budget, its AUKUS partners, feeling the pressure of China in the Pacific region, seem to be doing the opposite. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and Juliana Suess, a Research Fellow on Space Security, at the Royal United Services Institute, and host of the podcast “War in Space”.
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…there have been numerous events, hearings and meetings discussing naval issues over the last few weeks–Vago Muradian joins us to highlight key takeaways from recent headlines, and we’ll have some parting thoughts from the latest Sea-Air-Space symposium.
On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, former Pentagon Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim join host Vago Muradian to discuss House Speaker Mike Johnson’s future after Senate passage and President Biden’s signature of the Ukraine-Israel-Indo-Pacific supplemental, whether the amount is enough to help Kyiv win, Washington’s decision to transfer longer-range ATACMS missiles that have proven devastating against Russian targets, President Macron’s case for Europe to reduce reliance on America and China, the extent of Russian and Chinese infiltration of the European Parliament and German politics, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Beijing to urge cooperation as Chinese officials make clear Washington has to choose cooperation on its terms or confrontation, campus protests and their implications, the latest on Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.
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 Steve Deal As a new Lieutenant (junior grade) Navy pilot flying the P-3C Orion over the Indian Ocean in the early 1990s, I like many others was carefully trained in the art of “recognition, identification, and grouping” – or “RIGing” as most of us called the maneuver. RIGing was part of an assigned surveillance
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