Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast [Oct 04, ’26 Business Report]

On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. “Rocket” Ron Epstein of Bank of America Securities and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic advisory consultancy join host Vago Muradian to discuss a winning week on Wall Street; the Trump administration’s move to obligate $142 billion of $152 billion in spending approved by last year, funding President Trump’s priority Golden Dome missile defense system, ships and other programs; G7 nations release 100 million barrels of oil and diesel from their strategic reserves to tamp down energy prices that soared after the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February; Russia targets Ukraine’s power, heating and water systems as European nations lobby to life sanctions on oligarchs to free their nationals being held hostage by Russian allies; the US Navy’s decision to pick Boeing over Northrop Grumman for the FA-XX sixth-generation carrier-capable combat-aircraft; the Air Force’s $2.4 billion award to Boeing for 22 F-15EX Eagle II fighters and $20.7 billion for Raytheon to increase production of AIM-120 air-to-air missiles to 1,900 a year; Canada’s decision to buy six GlobalEye airborne early warning aircraft from Saab; Germany considers buying 16 new A400M transports from Airbus; and analysis of the capabilities of a 737 in the wake of the FlyDubai flight from the UAE to Israel that landed safely after one of the plane’s pilots tried to crash the plane.