On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. “Rocket” Ron Epstein of Bank of America Securities, Sash Tusa of the independent equity research firm Agency Partners and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic advisory consultancy join host Vago Muradian to discuss another down week on Wall Street on an unexpectedly low employment figures combined with the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran; expectations the Trump administration will ask Congress for $50 billion in supplemental funding to cover the cost of a conflict; a 35 percent jump in energy prices as Washington considers letting Russia resume oil sales; Ukraine’s offer to counter Iranian air attacks; resilience of the global commercial air transport system as regional air traffic has been derailed and energy prices soar; President Trump convenes US defense executives at an emergency meeting at the White House on Friday to “quadruple” production of “exquisite” weapons; whether the supply chain can support can surge defense production as commercial aerospace orders also peak; reports that Boeing is closing in on a 500-jet order with China in advance of Trump’s April meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing; Europe’s response to the war as Lithuania warns Russian forces are increasing along NATO’s borders; French President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to increase nuclear weapons production and field a new ballistic missile submarine by 2036 as Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden join Paris’ new forward deterrent strategy; Switzerland’s decision to pared back its F-35 Lightning II order from 36 to 30 planes on rising costs; Embraer’s earnings; and takeaways from the commercial edition of Joanna’s Speed’s Aerospace Event this week in LA. The Defense & Aerospace Report is a proud media partner on the defense edition of The Aerospace Event in October in Washington, DC.
