All across America and around the world. This is veterans radio. This is veterans radio.
And now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
And welcome to veterans radio. My name is Dale Throneberry, CW two helicopter type
pilot in Vietnam, 1969. Welcome to our program. I can't remember how many programs that Dr. Grant
has been on, but our guest today is Dr. Rebecca Grant. For those of you who have followed our
program, she is a military. I don't know, she knows everything that seems to be going on in the
military these days. So we're going to have her on in just a moment. And as I said, I want to
welcome you. If you'd like to ask her a question today, you can call this number 734-822-1600.
734-822-1600. Before we get into the interview and the other things, I want to make sure that we thank
our sponsors. We can't do this program without them. And, you know, we've been very grateful
over the years to have legal out for veterans. I think they've been with us probably at least 19
of the 20 years that we've been on the air. So that will be legal help for veterans, legal help
for veterans specializes in veteran disability claims. You can give them a call at 800-693-4800,
or you can go to their website, legalhelpforveterans.com. Actually, I think you can even start your
claim on their website. National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NBBDC,
is the nation's leading third party authority for the certification of veteran-owned businesses.
For more information, you should go to their website, that's NVBDC.org, or give them a call at
888-237-8433. If you want to do business with the federal government and you claim to be a veteran-owned
business, you got to get certified. And they want to make it mainly because they want to make sure
that you actually are a veteran-owned business. It's not that there are people out there that
claim to be veteran-owned and are not. But, yeah, there are. But if you go through NVBDC and get
certified as a veteran-owned business, you get priority with the federal government and with
many corporations. So again, that website is NVBDC.org. We can give them a call at 888-237-8433.
We also want to thank the Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for their
support. For more information, you can go to va.gov. And of course, we would never have gotten on the
air without the support of our local Veterans Service organizations. And that would be the Irwin
Presco and American Legion Post 46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America,
Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you would like to support Veterans Radio,
you can just go to our website. That's veteransradio.org and click on the donate button.
We've been doing this for 20 years. So right now, we're just asking for 20 bucks for 20 years.
If you'd like to become part of our list of corporate sponsors or even individual sponsors,
again, you can just send me an email directly. That's dale at veteransradio.org. And I will get
back to you as soon as I can to see what we can work out for you. We also do dedications if you
want to sponsor the Medal of Honor segment. That's another thing that's in there. And so we can
talk all about that if you are interested in that. I have one announcement for an upcoming event that
actually is for Veterans Radio. And that is on Sunday, May 26th. We are having a fundraiser at
the Carlisle Grill here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It's out on Jackson Road. And it's one of those
where they split their proceeds for that day with Veterans Radio. So that is Sunday, May 26th.
It's a Carlisle Grill out on Jackson Road. Great food, great atmosphere. And we'll all be out there.
I'm hoping the vast majority of the Veterans Radio crew will be out there. And we hope to
meet all of you. Come on out there. So mark that calendar down on your calendar. Yeah, mark the
date on your calendar. Yes, May 26th. Carlisle Grill, Jackson Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hope to see
you there. All right. So let's get right into it. There are so many things that are going on in the
world today that, you know, it takes someone for my, for me to have somebody like Dr. Grant be on
our program. So let me just give you a little background on her. As I mentioned, she's been
on our program. Wow. This would be, I think it's her 10th year. So Dr. Grant is a National Security
Analyst, Analyst based in Washington, DC. She has a PhD in international relations from the London
School of Economics. She has worked for the RAND Corporation and then on the staff of the Secretary
of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Air Force. She founded her own independent research company
and she specializes in the research for government aerospace industry, clients ranging from
analysis of military campaigns to projects on major technology and so on and so forth. But
now she has moved up a little bit in the world. I don't know if that's the right terminology,
but she is now the Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Lexington Institute and she will be
researching military and tech, aka artificial intelligence topics with them. So with that said,
I'm welcoming Dr. Rebecca Grant to Veterans Radio. Welcome.
Dale, it's great to be back on Veterans Radio with crises at every point of the compass and so
much to talk about. You are correct. Let's just kind of tell our audience quickly what's, what's
going on at the Lexington Institute. How did you get over there? Yes, the Lexington Institute. I've
worked with them off and on for a long time. Great, a great firm in the same space as mine and we've
decided to work together. So I am actually their Vice President for Defense Programs. They also have
an active interest in regulatory issues and technology and I'm running their defense programs
and we're interested in all the things that you're interested in, the health of the industrial base,
how we're coping with threats from abroad, and then the new challenges arising from AI and high tech
in our competition with China. So very exciting. New colleagues and new slate of issues to work on.
I think it's really exciting. So I went to their site today and I saw that one
article that you had written in there, which is kind of interesting, was about Lexington
as in Massachusetts, Lexington, April 19th, 1775. And you kind of tell us about, you know,
Paul Revere, you know, the British are coming and so forth. I thought this was kind of a really cool
article. Lexington is named after the battles of Lexington and Concord that took place there in
1775 and that was really our first battle as a nation. And it was those two battles in Boston that
led George Washington to go north and to help Boston form up its army and led then about a year
later to the Declaration of Independence. And I love the story of what Dr. Joseph Warren did
and his intelligence network in Boston that detected that the British were going to move
towards Lexington and Concord. Of course, what the British wanted was Sam Adams and John Hancock
who were in Lexington. Hancock had actually grown up in Lexington and he was hiding out there.
And then in Concord, of course, were all the guns and gunpowder for the Minutemen. And
Joseph Warren alerted his friends Paul Revere and William Dawes. Dawes went out by the Boston
neck. Revere hopped the ferry over across the river, picked up a horse and rode into history.
And it just, it still gives me chills to think about what those Patriots did in the great country
that we have created here and all began right there on the green in Lexington, the shot heard
round the world. Absolutely. One thing, something that we all need to remember. I think, I think
it is really important. So, all right, let's get, where would you like to begin today?
Let's, oh, I know, let's talk about, well, obviously the, the elephant in the room and that's,
that's Israel and Hamas. Yes, I think it's an excellent place to begin. You know, I know I just
talked about Lexington and the formation of America and how important this republic is,
what a great nation that we've become. And we have now so many responsibilities around the world.
Diving straight in, so President Biden is at work today in the White House and he had a conversation
with Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of Israel. And what they're talking about is they've got a really
good ceasefire plan. Egypt has worked hard on this. So has Israel. So has our CIA director Burns,
the government of Qatar, of course, who are the interlocutors with Hamas. And really, you know,
hoping and putting the pressure on for Hamas to accept this ceasefire would be about a three to
six week ceasefire, allowing more humanitarian aid to go into Gaza. And then the hope of the
partners in the region is that that temporary ceasefire would lead to a longer lasting peace.
And Israel's made some big concessions on the timing of the release of hostages
and all of that. So again, just really, really watching to see Secretary of State Anthony Blankin,
who's been in China and we'll talk about that, but he goes next to Saudi Arabia to help continue to
put the pressure on there. You know, what really strikes me here is our military forces are so
committed right now in this region. We saw the great help that our US military gave
when Israel was attacked by Iran. We're talking over 300 drones and missiles. 80 of those were knocked
out by a combination of our ships, Navy ships in the Red Sea and I think some aircraft. But of
course, we really helped with that early warning to the Israeli Defense Forces. But, Dale, I know
I'm just struck that we have forces right now, the Army building ready to put in place the
pier that will go along the coast in Gaza. Israel has actually done their seaside of that.
We have C-130s, the US and the Kingdom of Jordan are regularly using C-130s to drop
humanitarian relief supplies into northern Gaza. Of course, we're giving a great deal of military
aid to Israel. And then in the Red Sea, we have our US destroyers along with some allies, which
sometimes can include Britain, France, South Korea, and a few others. They're out there basically
playing zone defense against the Houthis. They had incoming, the Houthis fired, I think, three,
four times just this past week, ballistic missiles, various things, you know, trying to keep that
borough and end up straight open. And then don't forget our US forces that are in Syria, in the
small garrisons, they're kind of keeping an eye on ISIS. Our US forces that are part of the
coalition still in Iraq. So we have US military men and women servicemen from all branches
all over that region. And they are really making the difference in keeping the lid on Iran and
Iran's back militias at this point. And I hope that we're going to see a resolution here. But,
you know, Hamas has been holding out for about five months. They are not, you know, they're a
terrorist group. They don't do diplomacy. They don't like to agree to things. But this is really
a handcrafted ceasefire deal. And there will be further talks in Cairo this week. And going on,
hopefully we'll see a ceasefire and then at least a partial release of hostages. So that's
just today.
Well, I was going to ask you about this, you know, because, you know, we're seeing all these protests
all over the country right now, which is really not unusual for, you know, when we have these
international flare-ups out there. And this is just asking your opinion that it doesn't have to,
you don't even really have to answer. But do you think that Israel did kind of overreact?
I mean, not overreact. I mean, you had to react. But I mean, they overplayed their hand
as far as they're going into Gaza.
I think Israel had no choice but to reestablish security. And I'll tell you one thing that really
proves that is the absolutely unprecedented attack that Iran unleashed several days ago now on
Israel. You know, this is a scenario I've been in the national security business a long time. And this
was always a hypothetical scenario. No one really thought it would come to pass. And yet we
saw it happen. You know, Iran was not deterred by anything the White House said or anything that
Israel did. Now, the good news is the attack failed between Israel and the U.S. Most of the
missiles and drones were shot down. But as to whether Israel's overplayed their hand, I think there
was no question. And frankly, President Biden's been very clear about his ironclad support for
U.S. security. The situation on the ground for the last quite a little while has been that Israel's
defense forces have completed most of their operations in Gaza, except for that southern portion
that ends down at the Rafe Gate by the border with Egypt. They are about 10 kilometers, more or less,
from the Rafe checkpoints. There's a large area there set aside for the civilians that is a no-fighter.
It is a no-fire zone. And, you know, at this point Israel continues to say that they are ready to move
into Rafe. They've said that now for several weeks. And really what they're doing, I think, is
they're trying to keep the leverage on Hamas. I mean, nothing here can move forward unless Hamas will
also agree to a ceasefire. And right now I see Israel keeping up the military pressure because they
believe that the only thing that keeps Hamas even at the negotiating table is to have this option to go
into Rafe if Hamas backs down.
Right. And I think I agree with you. And I think the idea of, you know, working with a terrorist organization
that doesn't necessarily, you know, keep their promises on a regular basis. I mean, if I were part of
the Israeli military, I would, you know, it's like you want to go out there with a really big stick and just
say, okay, come on, you know, here's your opportunity to end this, but you're not taking advantage of that.
And, you know, so we just, we have to keep pushing until you finally say, you know, especially when they're,
you know, they're all inside of the, you know, the civilian population. And we, you know, we've had experience with that
before ourselves and how difficult it is to fight when the enemy is inside of the civilian population.
It's such a difficult decision-making process for the troops on the ground.
Yes, it's incredibly difficult. And remember that Hamas, you know, Hamas is the worst of the worst. They are
basically a criminal gang. They've run Gaza since the Israelis withdrew in 2005, 2006. The place is a mess.
They don't care. They're not popular in the region, believe me. Hezbollah hates them. There are reports in the
Washington Post recently that even residents within Sa'a Gaza are very frustrated. And of course, who wouldn't be
with the devastation that's going on, you know, it's pretty clear that Hamas doesn't care a lot about the people of Gaza.
And Hamas doesn't, they don't work, you know, this is not the PLO. This is not even the regime in Iran that has, you know,
has a government. Hamas doesn't recognize any, not the Oslo Accords from 1993, nothing that's followed since then.
So they really leave the region very little choice, but to demand a ceasefire. And then of course, the question of what happens next
will step one, of course, this humanitarian aid that's poised and ready to go. I hope step two will be a fast normalization
of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. That was on track before this happened. I think part of Hamas's motive was to,
was to deter that. This whole reason needs to move on and the Hamas era needs to end, you know, for the good of Gaza as well as
everyone else in the region.
Right. Yeah, I mean, it's been a power, powder cake for how many decades, centuries, which brings me to the idea of this,
of Iran, you know, sticking their, their two bits into this whole thing with all those drone attacks.
What do you think they were trying to accomplish with that?
I wouldn't even want to try to guess what. First of all, Iran is just, they're just stupid. You know, they are a, a
theocracy. They are not, they don't, they're not, you know, a country that's out to achieve things and have elections and they
have elections, but they are a theocracy and they're on just an entirely different plan than nearly every other state on the
planet. And I think that they wanted to show that they could launch these attacks. It's very interesting to me that the, the
targets apparently in Israel for this Iranian attack some days ago were largely the, the air base down there on the, on the
eastern side. And they, it's almost like they really wanted to, to go after things they knew they could get really good targeting data on.
Even so, the attack was a massive failure for Iran. And you have to step back, you know, about 15 years and look at how much Iran has
complicated the problem in Hamas. I know it is Iran that supplies the know-how and the way to make the missiles and supplies a lot of
the rockets and missiles to Hamas. You know, Iran has just made this whole situation worse, but this is what they want to do.
Same with their sponsorship of the Houthis in Yemen. And now their Iranian spy ship still sits in the Red Sea, you know, Iran's on the
other side of the Persian Gulf. Their ship sits in the Red Sea giving targeting data to the Houthis. It's been there for a couple years.
So much so that this is the second ship. They had to swap the first one out. You know, so Iran's role as a troublemaker in this region just cannot be overstated.
None of these conflicts would be at the level of devastation and death toll that they are right now if it were not for Iran's hand in this.
And of course, behind that now, China, which supports Iran by purchasing nearly all of Iran's oil.
So it is his end. And then we'll talk later about Iran's billion dollar deal with selling drones to Russia.
So, you know, Iran's role in this is terrible. Of course, they have really enriched. They violated all their nuclear agreements.
You know, Iran doesn't really need to enrich uranium. Most nations buy uranium on an open market for power plants. Iran could do the same.
They have no need for this nuclear complex, except that they want to be close enough to a nuclear weapon.
So, you know, it's just terrible what's happened with Iran and it's been so much worse in the last over the last decade and really brought up the level of conflict and tragedy in the Middle East.
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm just thinking here the metaphor of the idea of somebody, you know, putting a stick in a hornet's nest and swirling it around because there are other countries in that whole area, you know, not including Israel,
and of course, then, you know, we're involved too. That would just as soon just, and I don't want to use the terminology of military terminology, but just eliminate the Iranian problem if they could.
We'd love to get rid of this Iranian regime. You know, I think everyone understands Iran's people suffer as well.
But what keeps it going is the theocracy, the fact that Iranians Revolutionary Guard Corps are also in business. They make a lot of money off of selling all these things.
So it's a business and, you know, that's why they have all their militia that they train inside Iraq.
And then they like their whole policy is to stoke revolution and chaos, and they'd like to drive the United States and Israel and I suppose everybody else out.
The only good news here is they have become extremely unpopular in the region and nearly everybody else is wanting to isolate them.
It was very significant to me, although they were quiet about it, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia allowed its airspace to be used for the defense during the defense of Israel against the Iran attack.
And again, Iran had really telegraphed that that was coming. But it's hard, you know, Iran is as before the revolution and the ayatollahs had a, you know, fantastic cultural history and we'd all like to see that type of Iran come back.
But we're pretty long way from that right now and with their alliance with China and Russia, they are just terrible, terrible problem.
I was, I was seeing, you know, we talked a little bit earlier about the idea of, you know, when we were talking about drones, that you know they're becoming so sophisticated, and that there is a concern of, you know, because a drone can come in at, you know, 50 feet, 100 feet off the ground.
And do we have the technology, I mean, we haven't, we showed that we did, you know, high up in the air, but do we have the technology to protect ourselves or other, you know, allies in the world from these low flying drones?
Well, we have the technology, but it depends on where we're talking about protecting. And, you know, of course, the big question is protecting the United States, but let's start overseas for a moment. And one thing that Central Command did just in the last couple of months is enhance some of their counter UAS or counter drone systems.
So they've got a pretty good ability. And, you know, if you're a, if you're a serviceman out there somewhere in the Central Command area of operations, whether you're on the deck of a destroyer or you're at a base inside Syria, you know, you've got to layer your drone defenses so that the small drones as well as the larger ones are taken care of.
Now, the good news there is once these drones are spotted, they are very, very vulnerable. They're extremely vulnerable to fighter jets. Our fighter jets have actually been shooting down Iran drones here and there for years once they got too close to special forces or other encampments in the ground.
But, you know, now every US base has to think about this, this counter UAS system. And, you know, one question that's come up here is, you know, how vulnerable are troops to these type of drones? I mean, remember that it was a drone attack that killed the three American soldiers, the three Army soldiers in Jordan back in January.
And, you know, that I think we're waiting to get the final investigation on what happened. I think there was an unfortunate gap in coverage and tragic. And yet it tells you that that anti drone coverage is one of the key priorities for the US.
One thing that has been a problem in Washington is because of the delay in the budget. The Central Command has had trouble saying, hey, we need a little bit of money to quick speed up this drone solution for this base here in the Middle East.
And it's been really difficult. The Army's been bending over backwards to try to get that to them. But it has gotten pretty tough. And I think there have been some delays, you know, that we didn't want to see.
But anything abroad now is going to have to have really, really serious counter drone capabilities. No question about it.
Wow.
You know, this world is a scary place sometimes.
We're talking with Dr. Rebecca Grant here on Veterans Radio. And one of the questions that you had suggested is, you know, since we've already been talking a little bit about Iran.
You mentioned that Iran, North Korea and Russia are getting together for some meetings. That's, it sounds very ominous to me.
I know as if all the cooperation wasn't bad enough. There's actually been several high level diplomatic meetings between such despicable characters as Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoryug and his North Korean counterparts.
They frequently met with Iran. Iran actually hosted a summit for African nations in the last couple of days.
Oh, it's just terrible. Because, you know, what has happened since the Ukraine war began two years ago is we have now seen the cementing of an alliance which consists of Russia and China.
Remember, Xi Jinping visited in Moscow, you know, just a little bit before the invasion and said, sure, no problem.
Vladimir Putin, we don't mind if you invade Ukraine. On top of that is now the relationship, very tight relationship between Russia and Iran.
A strong relationship between Iran and China and then North Korea, who has supplied, I believe, 67 shipping containers of artillery shells to Russia so far.
So they've been meeting and it's sort of we always are tracking the cooperation and what we think is going on.
But these diplomatic meetings on top of it are just insult on injury.
The trouble is I don't see this alliance, the four of them falling apart anytime soon, because it suits everybody's interest right now.
You know, Iran is staying in business because China will still buy the oil, even though they're evading sanctions.
And because Russia will buy the drones, Iran has actually set up drone production inside Russia.
And they're looking to produce about 6,000 drones a year.
I know. And then you go back to North Korea and I have to compliment Veterans Radio because you have always in talking with you over the years kept an eye on North Korea.
Sometimes it's in the headlines and sometimes not, but it's become very, very dangerous.
And the worst thing with North Korea, two things. One is they still just will not talk to the US.
And secondly, we believe that North Korea is supplying artillery shells to Russia for the war in Ukraine.
And in return, Russia may be assisting North Korea with nuclear or missile design technology.
That's really bad. You know, I mean, some of this is old Russians, old Soviet technology to begin with.
But as we all know, North Korea wants a very strong nuclear deterrent.
They are a nuclear weapons state. And to have created this geopolitical opportunity, you know, this wasn't going on three years ago before that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Yes, they were closer relations with Russia and China and all this, but you didn't have this out in public in your face.
Heavy arms transfers, economic relationship between all of them.
And on top of that, China also is providing some advanced technology to Russia, not full weapons systems.
No, just the semiconductor chips and other things like that that are helping Russia keep its high tech edge.
So we have a really, really serious axis there between these four countries.
And at the center of all of it, honestly, is China and their ambitions.
Holy moly.
You know, when you're talking about China, of course, let's take a little bit of a look at them.
You mentioned that, I mean, I've been reading about China, you know, they threaten Taiwan, they threaten this, and then, you know, they're supporting the Russians, but then they have, you know, these minor flare ups of, you know, conflicting ideas.
With the Russians, and you don't really know what's going on.
Could you have any sense of what really is happening in China?
Well, you know, China is not really very subtle and China wants to be the world's technological superpower.
And they'd like to be the military superpower, certainly in the Pacific, if not everywhere else.
You know, it's hard even to just know where to begin with China.
We already talked about how China is helping Russia with advanced technologies.
And, you know, China's support for Russia is the reason that Russia can keep fighting in Ukraine.
There's just no two ways about it.
Again, huge financial leverage.
So, but let's look at a couple of the other things that are going on back to the Pacific for a moment.
This year, and last year too, but this year especially, has seen some really worrying encounters between China's Coast Guard,
and, which is huge, and the Philippine Navy.
Now, you know, remember, Dale, the Philippines are a treaty ally of the United States.
And yes, there was a time there where we, you know, Clark Air Force Base was closed down,
the Pacific Bay, all that was gone. But that's changed with the new government and the new threats from China.
And we're back to close relations with the Philippines.
We actually have a treaty obligation to treat an attack on the Philippines as an attack on the United States.
And my point here is China is walking very close to this line.
There are Coast Guard vessels have used water cannons on the Philippine vessels that resupply of our very tiny island.
That is Filipino Island that the Chinese think is theirs.
So the Chinese are really rubbing right up against this conflict line.
And this is the sort of thing, I mean, that is just much, much more serious and provocative than anything we've seen them do in the past.
They are really flexing their military power in the Pacific in a way that we just have never seen before.
And the idea is, I had a, it's interesting, I had a Philippine student this last semester and she gave a presentation on the Philippines.
And it's thousands of little islands.
And just, you know, the idea of, you know, as you mentioned, you know, the Chinese Coast Guard ships getting close.
Again, if that stick in the hornet's nest on a regular basis in all kinds of different areas, that, you know, it has to be, I'd hate to be a politician or a Secretary of Defense or state or anything right now.
You know, I'm trying to deal with that because I know you mentioned that, you know, that Secretary of State Blinken is in China, or he was in China, hoping to accomplish what?
Yes, he just left in China. He actually met with Xi Jinping.
The diplomacy, oh my goodness.
So just in the last couple of weeks, the State Department, of course, called China before Iran attacked Israel to ask China to ask Iran to not attack Israel.
I'm not making this up.
I mean, so that didn't really go so well, nor was it. Secretary Blinken, among other things, asked China to knock off giving Russia the advanced technologies.
Oh, so how's that going to go?
And then don't forget, I don't want to go into it too much here, but don't forget, there's the fentanyl problem. China provides the precursor chemicals for fentanyl that come across through southern border cartels and kill Americans.
Right.
That's always an issue that he raises as well.
But what the State Department is trying to do is there was a period where there was no dialogue, remember the balloon that was shot down in February 2023, and that period there was no discussion going on with Chinese.
So they want to try to at least keep the talking open. Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, was there a few weeks ago as well.
But let's go to the military strategy piece for a moment. You know, this is, is just such, on the other hand, we have Secretary of State Blinken.
We have Secretary of State Blinken visiting Xi Jinping. Then we have our US Space Force talking about the dazzling, breathtaking new capabilities that China has in space.
And we're talking military capabilities. And because it's the Space Force, they can't really tell us any more than that. We probably wouldn't understand it anyway.
But it's some bad stuff, right? In China's ability to interfere either with satellites on orbit or with the communications links with them.
We had the Department of Homeland Security issue a report a few weeks ago that revealed that China had hacked the State Department last summer.
This was just the investigation, but it concluded that they still really didn't know how China had managed to get the secret encryption keys to break into the State Department and the Commerce Department and 391 other prominent Americans and a bunch of Western Europeans.
So we know the cyber attacks is going on. The Department of Energy is worried about China cyber attacks on the electric grid.
And then back to the Pacific and the Philippines. The Army and others have really decided they just have to switch the strategy.
It's what they call a gray zone warfare. They don't want to go into a direct World War Three with China, but they need to be able to hop around those islands and take action where necessary.
So that leads to a greater emphasis on the ships like we've been talking about, freedom navigation.
Also on aircraft like the V-22 Osprey and the V-280 Valor that will provide that future vertical lift.
The Army and the Pacific Command and the Navy want to be able, and the Marines of course, want to be able to, if China tries to go into a little island out there, they want to get there first or already be there to deter that becoming a flashpoint.
And so that's something I think we'll hear a lot more about in the future of this new distributed strategy for staying one step ahead of China out in the Pacific.
All right, we need to take a break.
So we were talking here with Dr. Rebecca Grant. We've been talking about China. We've been talking about Russia. We've been talking about Iran.
We've got many more things to talk about when we come back.
So stay tuned. You're listening to Veterans Radio and we will be right back after our Medal of Honor segment.
Veterans Radio, the number is 1-800-693-4800. They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
Kilmer's company was defending a vitally important Korean hill position well forward of the main line of resistance during an assault by large concentrations of hostile troops.
Kilmer repeatedly braved intense enemy mortar, artillery, and sniper fire to move from one position to another, administering aid to the wounded and expediting their evacuation.
Painfully wounded himself when struck by mortar fragments while moving to the aid of a casualty, he persisted in his efforts and inched his way to the side of the stricken marine through a hail of enemy shells falling around him.
Haunted by the devastating hostile fire, he skillfully administered first aid to his comrade, and as another mounting barrage of enemy fire shattered the immediate area, unhesitatingly shielded the wounded man with his body.
Kilmer was mortally wounded by flying shrapnel while carrying out this heroic action.
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We're back here on Veterans Radio, and just a quick reminder to you that that little PSA that we just heard about, 988, that's a suicide crisis line, not just for veterans, it's also for civilians.
And so we are encouraging people to put this on a wall someplace if you have, I don't know if anybody that's having a crisis is to just dial 988.
Usually for veterans, you press 1.
But it's important to have that number available to you. Mental health is one of the biggest issues that we have not only in the military, of course, but also across the country.
We are talking with Dr. Rebecca Grant, and I'm going to let's talk briefly if we can about Ukraine.
I mean, the way that, you know, Congress was dilly-dallying around with the funding that they needed.
They finally got some of it evidently, you know, that's going to be able to help them out. Is it enough or is it, do you think it's too late?
I'm really glad. You know, the vote was a difficult one, and I'm really glad they've got that Ukraine funding moving. It's never too late.
Having said that, the situation with Russia has taken a real turn for the worse.
And General Kovale, who was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, you know, US Army, was here in Washington a few days ago, testifying just a couple of things that he told Congress, you know, yes, Russia has lost 2,000 tanks in Ukraine and 315,000 dead or wounded.
But Russia's frontline troop strength has increased from 360,000 to 470,000 over the past year.
Russia is ready to buy or bring into service 1,200 new tanks per year.
They're planning on producing over 3 million artillery shells per year.
And then of course, there's that $1 billion deal with Iran to build up to 6,000 drones per year.
So basically, Russia has re-armed. This is very, very serious for NATO and for our NATO partners like Poland, who spent, Poland spends 4% of their budget on defense.
They are buying, they bought a lot of US Abrams tanks. They're buying more. The reason they're buying tanks is they sent all their tanks to Ukraine in 2022, darn near all of them.
So we have, no matter what happens in Ukraine, as Kevoli has said, we're going to have a very, Russia will be larger, more lethal and angrier with the West than when it invaded.
So that's the overall situation. And that tells you why continued US support for Ukraine is so important. I get it. It's very frustrating.
I don't think anyone likes the way that the war has gone. I think there are a lot of frustrations with the White House despite their firm support.
There have been frustrations with the way the aid has been requested, the way it's been given and the fact, frankly, that it's been given in dribs and drabs.
I have to say it, no air power is really difficult when you've got an 800 mile front and Russians dug in with three layer deep mine belts down in the south.
But we are seeing some Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure in other places. And I think the aid is going to come in time.
You know, one thing about those North Korean artillery shells that Russia likes to fire is, fortunately, some of them are duds, not all of them.
You don't know which ones, but that's not the best ammo in the world.
So, you know, NATO is stronger than ever in support of Ukraine. And I'm glad that Congress, I know it's really hard, but I'm glad they've passed this.
And I think Ukraine still has a good chance here to kick more Russians off its territory and get to a place where we can talk about a more reasonable peace settlement at some point.
That would be that would be good because isn't isn't the Russian economy suffering from this?
You would think but I am told that the International Monetary Fund says Russia's GDP will increase by 2% this year.
And that's because they are able to circumvent sanctions. And again, because China does not pay any attention to sanctions.
China buys all the oil, China buys all this right and Russia's economy was kind of small and terrible anyway.
You know, Putin doesn't care about that. He will keep fighting.
And so what we're seeing here is that we now have a generational problem and we're going to have to defend against Russia for a really long time.
It's serious in a way it hasn't been before. And the best thing for that will be for Russia not to win in Ukraine.
We have got to lose or we will be have a far more serious security problem in Europe.
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Let's talk about some of the new new aircraft and new military equipment that is going on out there.
You know, we have a new airplane.
Right.
Right. The Doomsday plane.
You know, after all we've just talked about, you can see why they call it the Doomsday plane. Right.
I guess.
Actually, it's had that nickname for a while. But this is very interesting. This is what you all may know really as the E4B or the Pentagon's name for it is the Survivable Airborne Operations Center.
This is the plane that can be up flying as a command and control post in the event of a nuclear war.
So it's hardened and against EMP. It's got all sorts of everything in it.
But these E4s, which are based out at Off-Foot Air Force Base, are, they're getting old.
So they're going to be replaced with about 8 to 10 aircraft.
Fascinating. The announcement just came out that Sierra Nevada Corporation out of Sparks, Nevada, which is near Reno, a little suburb of Reno,
is the winner in this contract. Now, what's interesting is that Sierra Nevada won because Boeing, who had made these planes in the past,
dropped out of the bidding process. And this was largely due, the government said, hey, this is a huge program, $13 billion.
You guys got to give us basically a firm fixed price.
Boeing was unwilling to bid on that stunning, I've never seen Boeing drop out for something like this.
Now, Sierra Nevada Corporation, you'll be saying, who are they?
And you may know them from the Scorpion or the Supertacano, but what they do is they, what we call, they integrate.
They put box, they put really nifty boxes on airplanes like the C-130 and others.
And so I actually think, although this is a huge win for Sierra Nevada, it's really going to change it when this runs through 2036,
this one, the work will be done. But I think they're an excellent choice because basically what you do is you buy a jet,
like a 747 or something else, and you put a whole bunch of boxes and gizmos and gear on it.
I mean, more than you can imagine. And it's all got to work.
But that's what Sierra Nevada specializes in. So the Air Force knows them very well from their work for special operations and the Air Force and others
and classified programs and all manner of stuff.
So I think Sierra Nevada actually will do a very good job with their Boomsday plane and with Russia and its nuclear weapons,
China increasing its nuclear forces.
You can see why the Air Force needs to modernize that airborne command and control aircraft.
Speaking of modernization, there was an article that I saw from the Lexington Institute.
It says, the logic of aircraft carrier strike groups and that we are the only nation, evidently, that has sustained a fleet of these large deck nuclear power aircraft carriers across the globe.
I would say we have 11 of these things. But Congress has slowed down the building of new ones.
Oh my goodness, Congress.
These guys are, you know.
No, I don't know. Well, that's okay. This is Washington. We say mean things about them all the time.
I would think so. I mean, we have, even out here in the middle of the world, we never seem to say nice things about Congress anymore.
That's true. That's true, understandably. In this case, this was really a surprise.
So the law of the United States requires that we maintain 11 carrier strike groups.
And, you know, we have a really big defense budget right now. It's going to be for obvious reasons.
For all the reasons we've just discussed, it's really quite big.
But the Navy and the Pentagon, you know, Secretary of Defense Austin, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks,
decided to cut back on new aircraft carriers and slow them down.
Just the most inexplicable decision.
What we're doing right now is we're buying the Ford, the Gerald R. Ford class.
You know, Gerald Ford, long before he was a Congressman and then President, served on aircraft carriers in World War II.
And he was, you know, he was a Navy man. So the newest carrier, the Ford, is named after him.
It's really nifty design. Same hull as the Nimitz, but it's a little bit bigger.
They moved the island, which is that stack, the tower on the deck, a little bit further back.
And that gives them a little bit more room to what they call spot the deck and move aircraft around as they're doing flight operations.
These aircraft carriers, the Ford class have electromagnetic catapults, so it's not steam anymore.
And it took a while to get them working, but they work now.
And the Ford, which was over in the Middle East, they had a, oh, 250-day deployment.
And they did about 10,000 sorties with these electric catapults.
Worked great. The reason for the electric catapults is partly because they now want to be able to launch drones that are a little bit lighter.
And with the old steam catapults, it was just blast them off.
But with the electromagnetic, throw them into the air.
Throw them into the air. They're all the same. Everybody's got to be heavy because we're going to, all the planes had to be heavy and rugged.
They're being thrown into the air. But the electromagnetic catapults can be dialed up or down.
And so they can launch smaller aircraft and all this.
And, you know, the Navy, I think of the future, will have a lot of drones and unmanned aircraft.
They're already getting the MQ-25 Stingray, which is a combination tanker and surveillance drone.
So the Ford class is a great, you know, it's the new redesign that we really need.
Got a couple of them in the dry dock down in Newport News right now.
But Congress said, oh, nope, let's just, let's just wait.
Let's just take a couple of years and pause this shipbuilding.
Meanwhile, here's China with its fourth aircraft carrier.
Each one's a little different, but this fourth one is a much more sophisticated design.
Again, trying to use electromagnetic catapults that they've copied from the U.S.
Now, China's carriers are not as good as the Ford class.
For one thing, they are not nuclear-powered, which ours are.
But they only need to go down and harass the Philippines.
So they are capable of creating a lot of trouble.
And it's just an inexplicable decision at this point to delay the shipbuilding plan.
You know who really hurts is the suppliers.
Because you've got over 1,200 companies that build part of an aircraft carrier,
a lot in Virginia, but really throughout the United States in various places.
And you can't just say, hey, can you come back in five years?
We might want to put this order for these grappling hooks into you five years from now.
We don't need it now, but can you have this ready then?
It's not interchangeable parts in a lot of cases.
So it's really inexplicable in the face of what China is doing.
And I hope Congress has a chance to correct that in the budget.
I hope that's one of the things that they'll do.
I learned something when I was reading this article.
I was not aware that the nuclear power submarines.
They can stay out forever.
Almost says they require refueling only once during their 50 year life.
That was amazing to me.
I couldn't imagine that.
That's really cool.
That is really cool.
That reactor core overhaul is a very, very, very special thing.
Yeah, they can stay out about as long as they can have canned goods.
They talk to the submarines, especially about eating their way down to the bottom of the hull.
Yeah, that's understandable.
Yeah, they're limited by a child.
But yeah, that's what makes them so special in the aircraft carriers too.
And with the carriers, the nuclear power gives them the ability to go at speed and to launch and recover at speed, which is very, very special.
Do the nuclear submarines have the same capability?
Yeah, pretty much, because they can run that way, they are not operationally limited.
They don't have to pop back up for fuel or whatnot.
And so they can go into a position for whatever mission they're doing, whether it's a nuclear deterrence or something else.
And they can stay in that position tactically far, far longer than a non-nuclear powered submarine can.
Well, we've talked about a lot of things today.
We haven't been able to solve a whole lot of problems.
We've pointed out a number of problems that we have to keep ourselves aware of.
As we come up to the top of the hour, Dr. Grant, anything that you would like to add to our conversation?
All these crises around the world just tell me how important our U.S. military is.
Our six service branches have never been more important.
And I'm so grateful to all the men and women who are serving now.
And to all the veterans who have given us this great tradition of excellence.
It's what's going to keep our Republican shape and keep our allies together.
So thank you, veterans and active service members.
Boy, we need you.
Boy, we do.
And we got to help these.
Yeah, I think we're going to have to help some recruiting.
It sounds like with everything else that's going on in the world.
That's right.
Well, the America's military has never been more important than every crisis headline that we've talked about just shows you that that's the one thing we know we can count on.
That is the United States military.
And I think that that's important.
You know, I mean, we've kind of taken this role of the world's protector from, you know, the bad guys.
And, you know, sometimes we get bad press because people think that, you know,
we're sticking our fingers where they don't belong.
But if we don't stick our fingers in there, the world would be a total chaos.
That's right.
And we can see that Russia and China, Iran and North Korea would really like to make the world the way they want it.
And it is our US military that is at the forefront of making sure that that cannot happen.
And that the world has a chance to live in freedom and trade in peace and have it be the kind of world that we want with American leadership and that it we have never relied so much on the US military as we are today in this competition with China and all their nasty allies.
Well, Dr. Rebecca Grant again is enlightened all of us and all of you out there. And we'll be bringing her back again probably in another three months to catch up with what's happening in the world then.
So Dr. Grant, thank you so very much for being on our program.
I love the opportunity of giving you this whole time period to explain what's happening.
Oh, thank you. A pleasure to speak with Veterans Radio. Thank you.
Okay, we will see you again.
Thanks.
All right. Hey, while you're out there, folks, I got one thing I wanted to point out to you. We're talking about how the world is kind of looks at, you know, we're responsible for everybody because nobody else can step up and take care of people.
There's a book I want to recommend to all of you if you get the opportunity and that the book is entitled United America by Peter Shinto, S-H-I-N-K-L-E, Peter.
And it's a story of Franklin Roosevelt and his Secretary of Defense at the Time War, Harry Stimson. It's a great story of how we were able to rally everybody during World War II.
It's an audiobook. The story is amazing how they got Republicans and Democrats to work on this particular, obviously, on the World War II situation.
And fascinating, the stories of FDR, Stimson names, older people recognize it, you know, the Wilkes of the world, the Tafts of the world.
And I'd really encourage you to read this story because there's so much that could be taken out of this that we could use today.
So the title of the book is United America, the author is Peter Schinkel, S-H-I-N-K-L-E, you can get it on Amazon.
I encourage you to do that. Good book to read, good book to hear, and it makes a lot of things on you.
So next week is our benefits program. We're going to be talking about answering your questions about what you want to know about the Veterans Health Care System and other disability sections.
So until next week, this is Dale Throneberry for all of us here at Veterans Radio. You are dismissed.