Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast [Sep 11, ’26 Washington Roundtable]

On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, former DoD Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim of the Center for Strategic and International Studies join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss where defense legislation stands as both the House and Senate adjourn and November elections loom; President Trump’s promise that voters receive $5,000 payments if GOP retains House and Senate; US and Iran continue to exchange fire as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis take the strategic ports from which to better control the Bab al Mandeb, striking a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan sending oil prices soaring; Ha’aretz report that the UAE warned Israel about the Hamas attack as Israeli forces destroyed Hezbollah’s underground facilities in South Lebanon; decision by a dozen nations to sanction trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank; Washington’s continuing efforts to broker Ukraine peace deal while seeking to normalize relations with Moscow even as Russia continues to wage hybrid operations against NATO including an April test of a system to attack European undersea infrastructure that was thwarted by UK, Norwegian and US forces; Canada and Germany step up to help Ukraine with air defense weapons; analysis of AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt elections; the new bridge between Russia and North Korea; the Philippine defense minister’s viral video pushing back on China’s South China Sea provocations; big decisions for the US-South Korea alliance; what to expect from the BRICS summit this weekend in New Dehli; and lessons as America commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that killed some 3,000 that changed global security as well as American politics.