On this Washington Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Bob Hale, former Pentagon comptroller, Michael Herson, President and CEO, American Defense International, Byron Callan of the independent Washington research firm Capital Alpha Partners, Becca Wasser, Defense Program fellow at the Center for a New American Security, Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute .

Topics:

— Senate Armed Services Committee’s decision to boost defense spending authorization by $25 billion

— National security implications as nation’s borrowing rapidly approaching legislatively mandated debt ceiling

— Update on infrastructure and Jan. 6 commission maneuvering

— Registering women for the Selective Service

— Whether more money forestalls vitally necessary tradeoffs in developing future capabilities

— Key takeaways from the supply chain report co-chaired by Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., and Elissa Slotkin, R-Mich.

— How the Biden administration will balance Buy American tendencies against the imperative to draw the best technology and capabilities from allies and partners

— White House’s successful drive to unite NATO, EU, and other allies to work together to expose China’s malicious activities in cyberspace

— Japan’s statement on Taiwan and the implications of Beijing’s threat of a nuclear response against Tokyo

— Whether the Biden administration should stake out a more overt commitment to the defense of Taipei and whether that would deter Beijing from taking Taiwan by force

— The problematic nature of Chinese rhetoric given that Japan has potent capabilities that can rapidly field nuclear weapons as well as means of delivery

— Vladimir Putin’s treatise on why Ukraine should be part of Russia and how Moscow will gain control of Ukrainian territory — without military action