Patrick Tucker describes a Defense Department in transition as Russia's Ukraine invasion approaches the four-year mark.

Related reading:

• "Ukraine military-aid donors aim to set Kyiv up through 2027, Pentagon says," Tucker reported on January 7;
• And "Kyiv’s donors set production goals to regularize arms donations to Ukraine," he reported two days later.

We listen back on more than a dozen guests from conversations across 2024. 

Guests (in order):

• Fabian Hinz, research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies;
• Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations, and co-author of "God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America";
• Karolina Hird, analyst and Russia Deputy Team Lead at the Institute for the Study of War;
• Elliot Ackerman, co-author of "2054: A Novel";
• Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she works on defense strategy, defense budgets, and military readiness;
• Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;
• Chris Blattman, economist, political scientist, and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago, and author of the 2022 book, "Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace";
• Mick Ryan, retired Australian Army major general, strategist, and author of “White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan";
• Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a geopolitics think-tank in Washington, and author of “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century";
• Sam Skove, former Defense One staff writer;
• Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington and senior director of FDD's Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation;
• Peter Tamte, founder and CEO of Victura;
• And Brent Sadler, retired Navy captain and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Guests:

• Audrey Decker, aerospace reporter for Defense One;
• Patrick Tucker, science and technology editor at Defense One.

Related reading:

• Some Republicans remain unsold on Hegseth
• Russia in talks to send fighter jets to North Korea, INDOPACOM says
• ‘Multi-headed monster’: Biden, Trump officials address China-Russia-Iran coordination
• ‘Shock the system’: Startups and DOGE take over Reagan forum
• Defense officials hopeful incoming administration keeps funding cutting-edge tech

Guests:

• Brian Potter, Senior Infrastructure Fellow at the Institute for Progress and author of "Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?" from September 2024;
• And Nicole Foy, ProPublica’s Ancil Payne Fellow, writing on immigration and labor; her report "An Immigrant Died Building a Ship for the U.S. Government. His Family Got Nothing" was published in October 2024.

And don't miss our complementary podcast episode, "How U.S. Navy shipbuilding sank so low."

Guests:

• Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America;
• Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va.;
• Ret. Navy Capt. Brent Sadler, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation;
• And Ret. Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Sources and additional reading:

• Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress (PDF);
• U.S. Navy budget materials;
• "Navy adds $1B to unconventional effort to boost sub production," by Lauren Williams, reporting Sept. 2024;
• Defense Department's 2024 Defense Industrial Base strategy;
• And "Restoring Our Maritime Strength: An agenda for the next president’s first hundred days," by Brent Sadler and Jerry Hendrix, writing in the National Review in late October.

A decorated Marine veteran and a video game maker revisit one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. military history. 

Guests:

• Elliot Ackerman, author and contributing writer at The Atlantic;
• Peter Tamte, founder and CEO of Victura;
• And Defense One science and tech editor Patrick Tucker.

Sources and additional reading:

• "Goodbye, My Brother," by Elliot Ackerman, writing for Esquire on March 23, 2017;
• The video game "Six Days in Fallujah";
• "Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks," a satirical video produced in January 2011 by The Onion;
• "Virtual reality exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a meta-analysis," published August 2019 in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology;
• "Trauma, treatment and Tetris: video gaming increases hippocampal volume in male patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder," published April 2020 in the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience;
• And "Putting the Gaming Experience at the Center of the Therapy—The Video Game Therapy® Approach," published June 2023 in Healthcare.

A retired U.S. admiral shares what he learned from a recent trip to the wartorn country.

Guest:

• Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington and senior director of FDD's Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation.

Defense One staff summarize the leading developments from this year's Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington. 

Guest:

• Sam Skove, staff reporter;
• Patrick Tucker, science and tech editor.

Find Defense One's complete AUSA coverage here.

Audrey Decker explains some of the top developments out of this year's AFA conference outside Washington.

Guest:

• Audrey Decker, Defense One’s air warfare reporter.

Extra reading:

• China’s aggressive regional moves open doors for the US, PACAF chief says
• Air Force wants NGAD to cost no more than an F-35. Is that even possible?
• Lessons from Ukrainian F-16 crash will shape US training: Air Force general
• Air Force’s Ospreys will return to forward-deployment within 'weeks'
• Test B-21 flying up to twice a week, Northrop reports

Patrick Tucker unpacks findings from his recent trip to Prague for the 2024 Global Security Conference.

Related reading:

• "European officials vow to boost defense production, but some worry it won’t be enough," by Patrick Tucker, reporting August 30 from Prague;
• "The big loophole allowing Russia to access US chips? China," by Tucker again, reporting from Washington on September 11;
• And "EU competitiveness: Looking ahead," a report published this week by Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank.

The Army just put a new unit loaded with cutting-edge tech to the test at Fort Johnson. Sam Skove explains what he saw during a recent week long demonstration.

You can read more from Sam's coverage of this Army exercise here.