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, Bob Hale, former Pentagon comptroller and Stacie Pettyjohn, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

Topics:

— Dynamics surrounding Senate’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure initiative and $3.5 trillion budget plan

— Outlook for raising the debt ceiling, continuing resolutions and possibility of government shutdown

— Takeaways from latest Green Book

— Senate Armed Services Committee concerns with the Biden administration’s Pacific Defense Initiative

— Biden administration policies that allowed the Taliban to seize key Afghan territory in one week and threaten Kabul

— Case for and against the administration’s drive to exit Afghanistan irrespective of the human and geopolitical impact

— How US abandonment of Afghanistan will impact perceptions of American leadership among allies and adversaries

— Whether Washington can effectively counter terror groups that will seek to threaten the United States and its allies from safe havens in Afghanistan

— Update on Lockheed Martin’s proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne