On this episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Strategy Series, sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Dr. Jerry McGinn, the director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, and Bill Alderman of Alderman & Company, a boutique firm specializing in aerospace and defense mergers and acquisitions, join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss President Trump’s executive orders on reforming defense acquisition, defense acquisition and a maritime strategy; how such orders shape the actions of smaller firms in the aerospace and defense industrial base; the outlook for military spending and whether higher material costs in the wake of the president’s tariff decisions could undermine the Pentagon’s buying power; how big contractors squeeze their smaller suppliers in the name of “partnering for success,” and how the big-small dynamic is changing; the inability of US leaders to think strategically, for example, on building rare earth mineral capacity; and more.