On this Washington Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Byron Callan of the independent Washington research firm Capital Alpha Partners, Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute, Bryan Clark, the director of the Center for Defence Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute think tank and Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council.

Topics:

— The move by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer to put the more than $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal to a vote

— Effort by Senate Republicans to carve out $50 billion for military infrastructure investment

— Economic and budget implications of spreading delta and other variants of coronavirus on national economic recovery

— China’s drive to build more than 200 new ballistic missile silos and field new multi-nuclear warhead intercontinental weapons to improve its nuclear deterrence capabilities

— Whether recent statements by US leaders discussing American wargames and commitments to defend Taiwan will serve to deter potential Chinese aggression

— Takeaways from the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference and tradeshow

— New maritime and naval aviation strategies

— Taliban gains in Afghanistan as US and foreign troops withdraw

— What’s next in Iraq as US changes nature of its mission in the country

— Outlook for reviving the Iran nuclear deal as Tehran is accused of attacking an Israeli-managed tanker, killing American and Romanian mariners

— Navy’s investigation that concluded a disgruntled sailor set the fire that destroyed the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard and the firefighting lessons learned from the conflagration