On this Washington Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Michael Herson, President and CEO, American Defense International, Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO who is now with the Center for a New American Security, Byron Callan of the independent Washington research firm Capital Alpha partners and Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute.

Topics:

— Update on reconcilliation, debt ceiling, infrastructure and NDAA

— Whether defense spending might become a casualty as debt collides with infrastructure and spending plans

— Democrat’s self-inflicted wound over move to block funding for Israel’s Iron Dome system

— Biden’s UN address, Quad meeting and bilateral discussions with UK and Australia in the wake of the three-nation strategic partnership

— How Beijing is responding to the deal that will furnish Canberra with nuclear attack submarines

— Transatlantic links in wake of call between Biden and Macron to discuss AUKUS deal as EU calls for higher spending and more strategic autonomy

— Takeaways from the Air Force Association’s annual Air Space Cyber conference and tradeshow

— What’s next in Tokyo as Yoshihide Suga prepares to step down as prime minister