Defense One Radio

Audrey Decker explains some of the top developments out of this year's AFA conference outside Washington. Guest: Audrey Decker, Defense One’s air warfare reporter. Extra reading: China’s aggressive regional moves open doors for the US, PACAF chief says Air Force wants NGAD to cost no more than an F-35. Is that even possible? Lessons from Ukrainian F-16 crash will shape US training: Air Force general Air Force’s Ospreys will return to forward-deployment within 'weeks' Test B-21 flying up to twice a week, Northrop reports

Patrick Tucker unpacks findings from his recent trip to Prague for the 2024 Global Security Conference. Related reading: "European officials vow to boost defense production, but some worry it won’t be enough," by Patrick Tucker, reporting August 30 from Prague; "The big loophole allowing Russia to access US chips? China," by Tucker again, reporting from Washington on September 11; And "EU competitiveness: Looking ahead," a report published this week by Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank.

The Army just put a new unit loaded with cutting-edge tech to the test at Fort Johnson. Sam Skove explains what he saw during a recent week long demonstration. You can read more from Sam's coverage of this Army exercise here.

We revisit some of the bigger takeaways from this year’s Farnborough International Airshow.  Guest: Dan Darling, vice president of market insights at Forecast International, a research and consulting firm owned by Defense One's parent company. You can see all of our Farnborough Airshow coverage, here.

We conclude our 2024 Tech Summit coverage with an interview featuring DARPA Director Stefanie Tompkins. Guest: Stefanie Tompkins, Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. You can see all of our interviews from the 2024 Tech Summit at Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Our 2024 Tech Summit coverage continues with a discussion about the future of hypersonic missile research and development. Guest: Frank Peterkin, Principal Director of Directed Energy at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies; And Jarret Lafleur, Senior Advisor to the Principal Director for Hypersonics for Strike Systems Strategy and Policy Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. You can see all of our interviews from the 2024 Tech Summit at Defense One's YouTube page, here.

We’re sharing some of our notable exchanges from the 2024 Defense One Technology Summit, beginning with the Pentagon's Maynard Holliday. Guest: Maynard Holliday, Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies at the Defense Department. You can see all of our interviews from the 2024 Tech Summit at Defense One's YouTube page, here.

What might an invasion of Taiwan look like, and how can allies help the island nation better defend itself?  Guest: Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a geopolitics think-tank in Washington. Sources: “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century,” by Dmitri Alperovitch, published April 2024;  “Surveying the Experts U.S. and Taiwan Views on China’s Approach to Taiwan in 2024 and Beyond,” by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 2024.

The author of “White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan" discusses shoring up defenses against a blockade or invasion.  Guest: Mick Ryan, retired Australian Army major general, strategist, and author. Sources: “White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan,” by Mick Ryan, published May 2023; "Chinese Warship Activities around Taiwan," by Si-Fu Ou, director of the Division of Chinese Politics, Military and Warfighting Concepts at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan; “From Coercion to Capitulation, How China Can Take Taiwan Without a War,” by the Institute for the Study of War, May 2024.

Guest: Chris Blattman, economist, political scientist, and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago. Sources:  “Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity,” published April 2024 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;  “Back in Stock? The State of Russia's Defense Industry after Two Years of the War,” by Maria Snegovaya, Max Bergmann, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton, and Samuel Bendett, published April 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies;  “Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending,” by Mackenzie Eaglen, published April 2024 by the American Enterprise Institute;  “Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks,” by Ankit Panda, published October 2023 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;  “Missile Proliferation and Control in the Asia-Pacific Region,” from Jeffrey Lewis and Kolja Brockmann, published April 2024 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies; And “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace,” from Chris Blattman, published April 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Guests: Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she works on defense strategy, defense budgets, and military readiness; And Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Sources:  “Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity,” published April 2024 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;  “Back in Stock? The State of Russia's Defense Industry after Two Years of the War,” by Maria Snegovaya, Max Bergmann, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton, and Samuel Bendett, published April 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies;  “Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending,” by Mackenzie Eaglen, published April 2024 by the American Enterprise Institute;  “Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks,” by Ankit Panda, published October 2023 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;  “Missile Proliferation and Control in the Asia-Pacific Region,” from Jeffrey Lewis and Kolja Brockmann, published April 2024 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies; And “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace,” from Chris Blattman, published April 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Guest: Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a postdoctoral fellow in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Source material:  “Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity,” published April 2024 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;  “Back in Stock? The State of Russia's Defense Industry after Two Years of the War,” by Maria Snegovaya, Max Bergmann, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton, and Samuel Bendett, published April 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies;  “Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending,” by Mackenzie Eaglen, published April 2024 by the American Enterprise Institute;  “Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks,” by Ankit Panda, published October 2023 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;  “Missile Proliferation and Control in the Asia-Pacific Region,” from Jeffrey Lewis and Kolja Brockmann, published April 2024 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies; And “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace,” from Chris Blattman, published April 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Defense One's Audrey Decker interviews Gen. David Allvin and Air Mobility Command's Gen. Mike Minihan (at the 32:42 mark). You can also catch all of our 2024 State of Defense interviews on Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Defense One Executive Editor Bradley Peniston speaks with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti; and Defense One's Patrick Tucker sat down with Fourth Fleet commander Rear Adm. James Aiken (at the 28:09 mark). You can watch both of these interviews on Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Defense One's Sam Skove speaks to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George; and Defense One's Jennifer Hlad speaks with Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. You can watch both of these interviews on Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Defense One's Sam Skove speaks to Assistant Commandant Gen. Christopher Mahoney; and Defense One's Jennifer Hlad interviews Marine Corps Combat Development Command's Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl. You can also watch either of these interviews on Defense One's events page, here.

Defense One's Audrey Decker speaks to Chief of the Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman; and Defense One's Lauren Williams interviews Air Force Col. Michelle Idle, deputy commander of Space Systems Command. You can also watch either of these interviews on Defense One's events page, here.

The author and Marine veteran discusses the future of technology, the promise of AI, the perils of toxic politics, and other themes packed into his latest work of speculative fiction.  Guest: Elliot Ackerman, co-author of "2054: A Novel," which was published on March 12. Find our previous discussions with Ackerman here: Ep. 107: The legacy of America’s Afghan war; And Ep. 79: “2034: A Novel of the Next World War”.

Audrey Decker unpacks the top news from this year's Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium. Here's a roll-up of her reporting from the AFA symposium: Air Force announces major shakeup to prep for war with China; Air Force will narrow its pool of robot wingman vendors within ‘next few months’; 'Unexpected’ engineering slows price negotiations on USAF radar plane USAF plans stealthy tankers for ‘extreme threat areas’; Lockheed vows steady F-35 production amid demand shifts And First Ukrainian F-16 pilots will complete training as soon as May.

How does the Kremlin force an entirely new reality on an occupied city? And how do Europeans feel about the invasion and U.S. hesitation to rearm Ukraine?   Guests: Karolina Hird, analyst and Russia Deputy Team Lead at the Institute for the Study of War; Karin von Hippel is Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute. You can find Hird's recent report, "The Kremlin's Occupation Playbook: Coerced Russification and Ethnic Cleansing in Occupied Ukraine," here.