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00:00If diplomacy keeps failing, could Tomahawk missiles and a green light from the White House
00:06change the course of the war for Ukraine and help it finally end Russia's illegal invasion?
00:13Plus, North Korea flexes its muscles, test-firing an ICBM in advance of a presidential visit to the Korean Peninsula.
00:22And NASA's new ride takes flight — what the X-59 could mean for the future of supersonic air travel.
00:29Hello and welcome to Weapons and Warfare, a show made for people who want to know more about our national defense.
00:40Our goal is to help you have an informed conversation about what's happening with America's military.
00:46For Straight Arrow News, I'm your host, Ryan Robertson, and we start this week with the Nuclear Triad.
00:52Originally conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s,
00:57the Triad was created to guarantee the U.S. could carry out a second-strike nuclear attack,
01:03even if some of its nuclear capabilities were lost in an initial strike.
01:09But like every branch of the Department of Defense, the Nuclear Triad is in need of modernization.
01:16And that's the subject of this week's debrief.
01:19I always thought just being ready is the point.
01:26It keeps the villain check.
01:29It keeps the world straight.
01:31If they see how prepared we are, no one starts a nuclear war.
01:37The recently released Netflix thriller, A House of Dynamite, plays out a scenario people have worried about since the dawn of the nuclear age.
01:49A missile armed with the ability to kill millions headed towards the United States with no clear picture of who launched it.
01:58Now, Netflix definitely took some artistic liberties with the movie, following an established Hollywood pattern when it comes to movies like this.
02:08But the actual threat remains very real.
02:12So much so that at this year's Air, Space and Cyber Conference, the Air Force Association gathered three generals and a senior executive from the defense industry to talk about what, in their opinions, the modernization of the nuclear triad needs to look like.
02:29Our triad is what our nation needs to assure allies and deter potential aggressors that would threaten our homeland.
02:37And it's proven. It's proven over five decades that it works.
02:42Now we need to modernize it.
02:44Quick recap. In case you're wondering what is the triad, it's America's nuclear deterrent.
02:49It's composed of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, SLBMs, and long-range strategic bombers.
03:02Land, sea and air, the backbone of America's national defense since the days of the Cold War.
03:09The Cold War, to us, contextually, what we're facing now is vastly different.
03:14A lot of it is the mindset, but certainly it sets the stage so that you can maintain strategic advantage.
03:21And so, you know, we see a lot of promise both in the programs of record, but also in the legacy systems that we have existing today.
03:33Those programs of record, General Parker mentioned, are pretty significant.
03:37First up, the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, the eventual successor of the B-2 Spirit.
03:44With a buy of at least 100 aircraft, this long-range stealth bomber can deliver both conventional and nuclear munitions.
03:52We know that, you know, the capabilities that the B-21 will bring into the mix, especially as we talk about the more advanced defensive systems that we're seeing.
04:03We're really looking forward to this capability.
04:06And so, at the end of the day, for General Cotton, you know, he has to provide a range of options to the president in order to preserve the decision space for the president.
04:19And so, the triad, in our view, remains the most effective, the best way to do that.
04:24We now not just have one, but two aircraft in the test program.
04:28And if you think about it, you know, very advanced aircraft, very complicated aircraft, built to production processes, performing exactly how we expected them to,
04:37which is really a testament to all the great work that was done in the model environment before we actually built those aircraft.
04:43When it comes to the land-based element of the triad, some might be thinking, what's wrong with the Minutemen 3?
04:49Unlike bombers and submarines, it's never actually been used. Why can't it keep doing the job?
04:55On the flip side of that argument, some might say the fact it's only ever been fired in testing is proof that it's done the job, providing deterrence for more than 55 years.
05:07And as Brigadier General William Buck Rogers points out, it's not just about what the Department of Defense is doing.
05:15The adversary gets a vote. With this world changing, the requirements for an ICBM fleet may look different in the future and do look different.
05:24And that's where Sentinel comes in, right? We have to be more responsive to the threats when it comes to the land lake.
05:31And that doesn't include just head-on kinetic type threats. That includes things like cyber.
05:38So Sentinel, a core part of Sentinel, is actually making sure that we are cyber secure,
05:43making sure that we bake cyber into that system and that we can defend it from not just, like I said, the traditional kinetic type of attack, but also cyber and non-kinetic attacks.
05:53So when can taxpayers expect to see these next-gen ICBMs online and ready for duty?
06:00If a report from the Government Accountability Office is any indication, sometime in the 2050s.
06:06Various delays and cost overruns have plagued the program since the contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman in 2020.
06:14Despite the setbacks, though, Northrop Grumman's Ben Davies said things are moving along.
06:20We've now had the opportunity to prototype and test every stage of the missile and they very much performed as we expect them to,
06:27which gives us confidence as we push forward on the path to get that program into flight test.
06:32Finally, the sea-based leg of the triad. While it's not exactly in their wheelhouse,
06:37the assembled Air Force flag officers all seemed to understand its importance.
06:42The sea-based leg of the triad, right? It's the most survivable.
06:47Okay, and as we transition from Ohio-class to Columbia-class,
06:52we'll be guaranteed that advantage well for decades to come.
06:57The new Columbia-class submarines, formerly known as the Ohio Replacement Submarine,
07:02is the U.S. Navy's next generation of nuclear-powered ballistic missile subs.
07:07The first of 12 anticipated Columbias is expected to be delivered in 2028 or 2029,
07:15and should be ready for service by 2031.
07:19Time now for some headlines you may have missed.
07:23I'm joined now by senior producer and Air Force veteran, Brett Baker.
07:27Brett, we just got done hearing about the modernization of the nuclear triad.
07:31You know, I know a lot of folks have a lot of positions,
07:34but those nuclear weapons have provided the U.S. and our allies with relative peace for the last 60-plus years or so.
07:42Absolutely, and just like anything, there's a time for change, and it's going to cost.
07:51It's not going to be a cheap process, but it's something that definitely probably needs to happen sooner rather than later.
07:58You bet.
07:59All right, let's get to those headlines.
08:01It looks like Ukraine's war against Russia's illegal invasion is destined to enter a fourth year,
08:09and talk is growing about what it could mean for the cause if President Trump approved the delivery and use of Tomahawk missiles.
08:17Back in September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the U.S. to sell Tomahawks to European nations,
08:24who would then in turn sell them to Ukraine or give them to Ukraine.
08:28Matthew Seville, the Director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute,
08:33says that green light would be a welcome sign by NATO and Ukraine's European allies.
08:39It's very much a material contribution that runs against some of the ways that the president has been talking about supporting Ukraine.
08:49I mean, he has made more U.S. military equipment available to buy by European countries to give to Ukraine.
08:57But a donation like this would be actually the first major military support agreed by the Trump administration,
09:05as opposed to delivering weapons that had been previously approved by the Biden administration.
09:10To this point, the president has denied Ukraine's requests for use of the long range missiles,
09:16but is also growing frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to reach a peace deal.
09:23Brett Tomahawks would be a powerful weapon in Ukraine, no doubt.
09:27This whole conversation, though, reminds me of the talks around Abrams, F-16s,
09:32and these other deep strike weapons under the Biden administration.
09:36Well, everything is a bargaining chip.
09:38And then depending on which way the wind is blowing that week,
09:41it's hard to know what the president is thinking in regards to, you know,
09:47what kind of help he wants to give Ukraine or not.
09:50But definitely those would be, and we joke about the use of this word, a game changer for Ukraine.
09:59So I hope that that's kind of something, because this thing needs to end at some point.
10:05And someone needs to make a move that's going to be decisive enough to force the other one's hand.
10:11And I hope it's Ukraine. That's what, you know, I think the majority of the free world wants.
10:18And I certainly know it's what Europe wants.
10:20So it would be nice to see some action on that front for sure.
10:25You bet. Every time the U.S. has deployed tomahawks, it's always been a decisive move.
10:34We saw tomahawks being deployed.
10:36Part of the strike against the Iranian nuclear sites, there was a bunch of tomahawks deployed from submarines in that strike.
10:43And so submarines from Ukraine would be able to strike pretty much anything in Russia.
10:49And there's enough mass there.
10:52Like Ukrainians can make some deep strike weapons of their own and they are.
10:55But they don't have the mass yet because pretty much everything that they make, as soon as it comes off the line, it's being shot.
11:01So to your point, hopefully the Ukrainians get the get that extra piece of the puzzle to tip the scales in their favor.
11:10All right. Speaking of missiles in advance of President Trump's visit to South Korea last month, their neighbors to the north said they recently conducted successful cruise missile tests.
11:21The latest display of its military capabilities.
11:24North Korea's official news agency said the sea to surface missiles flew for more than two hours before accurately striking targets in its western waters.
11:34Brett, Rocket Man is going to Rocket Man, I suppose.
11:39Absolutely. You know, one of the real kind of like intel I can bring to this is my experience.
11:46I was stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea, 1990 to 91.
11:51And back then his father was in charge.
11:54But we called it saber rattling.
11:56Sure.
11:57It's a lot of just making noise to make noise so that, you know, they don't forget you're there, I suppose.
12:04I don't think any of us.
12:07Yes, they are.
12:08They are to be taken seriously.
12:10How serious is the threat?
12:12The threat.
12:13I have to think that they know that they may have the upper hand in anything that if they were to strike first, but that would not last long.
12:23So it's not in their best interest to actually do anything.
12:28But making noise and making people.
12:31Well, what are they up to now?
12:33Does seem to be their game.
12:35Right.
12:36Right.
12:37I mean, it's it's kind of what they do.
12:38Right.
12:39To your point, you know, South Korea, they've always had this enemy at the north.
12:44They've been prepared constantly, you know, fight tonight kind of mentality across the country.
12:51So, yeah, to your point, North Koreans might be able to, you know.
12:56Yes, you got to take them seriously.
12:57Seriously, they are a nuclear armed country, but any any kind of opening volley would be probably North Korea's only volley if you if you game it out.
13:09So.
13:10All right.
13:11Finally, NASA's X-59, a supersonic but quiet jet, soared over the Southern California desert in late October in the first test flight of the experimental aircraft.
13:23The X-59 was built and designed by Lockheed Martin to break the sound barrier with little noise, possibly paving the way for faster commercial air travel.
13:32The sleek looking jet, and it does look very sleek, took off from a runway at Lockheed's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles.
13:47The X-59 is designed to break the sound barrier with a sonic thump rather than a boom.
13:53It's touted to be able to cruise at Mach 1.4 at an altitude of fifty five thousand feet.
14:01And Brett might make the hop over the pond a little quicker.
14:04I got to imagine the price of fuel for that thing, though.
14:07It's going to be ridiculous.
14:08So quicker flight, probably not a cheaper flight.
14:11That is most oddly a fact.
14:15I think the real interesting application is kind of the reason why I picked that story is eventually that's going to find its way into the military.
14:24I have to believe if this is a successful venture.
14:28Obviously, it would be great for because, you know, for the most part, supersonic flight over the U.S. is largely banned.
14:37But I have to think that at some point, if it works, that's going to be something that comes towards the military's way.
14:45Sure.
14:46I want to know at what level does a thump become a boom?
14:51Is there like an intermediary?
14:53Right.
14:54Like the sonic thump?
14:55Is there a sonic crack in between thump and boom?
14:58A sonic slap?
14:59I don't know.
15:01I'm going to have to find a supersonic hypersonic like engineer and talk about that.
15:08So.
15:09All right, Brett.
15:10Really appreciate it.
15:11As always, we'll see you next week.
15:12See you next week.
15:16Just like UAVs and UGVs come in all different shapes and sizes, so do UUVs, unmanned underwater vehicles.
15:23And I'm going to talk a little bit more about this Toloka 1000 behind me with a gentleman from the company.
15:28We're not going to show his face for security reasons, but just want to say thank you so much for joining us today.
15:33Oh, thank you.
15:34It's a great opportunity.
15:36So the Toloka 1000, it looks like a submarine, basically just one giant unmanned vehicle.
15:41One giant unmanned torpedo?
15:43Well, it's actually more like a sort of unmanned submarine.
15:47So there is no crew, but it can do all the stuff that submarine does.
15:51It has even diesel engine on it.
15:53So it's like old style diesel electric submarine, but high autonomous.
15:59It can connect to the internet while it's on the surface and send all the data it has acquired during the mission and can perform long-term missions up to three months or even a half a year, depending on the fuel capacity and the battery capacity.
16:15Okay.
16:16So that's good clarification there.
16:18It's not necessarily a strike vehicle.
16:20It can be a strike vehicle, but it also can be a reconnaissance vehicle.
16:24It can perform the mining operations, mining operations, service, sleeping mine, you know, when it detects acoustically someone, it can go right to the target.
16:36It has optical, thermal, and acoustic targeting systems.
16:41We have a sort of Shazam for ships where we can measure by analyzing the acoustic signature, define what type of ship it is, and even in some cases define what model of ship it is.
16:55Shazam for ships.
16:57That's a good term.
16:58That's a good term.
16:59As far as where it's made and stuff, built here in Ukraine?
17:02Yeah, it's built in Ukraine, but we use companies from all over the world, components.
17:08You bet.
17:09In this show, I mean, obviously we're trying to attract some international investment, maybe some international customers.
17:14Have you had any folks from outside of Ukraine stop by and kind of question you guys about what you got?
17:20Yeah, it's quite prominent here, like everybody sees a big sub and wants to know something about it.
17:27And we talked to some companies that are also in naval field.
17:33We also talked to military officers of European countries and also in the U.S.
17:40So there are plenty of interest for low cost underwater sea effectors.
17:46And what we do in Ukraine is basically low cost, low tech, but highly effective.
17:55So we are good in implementing software, but the hardware is not so sophisticated.
18:03Makes sense.
18:04Augmented low tech.
18:06Now, this is the Taloka 1000.
18:09How long is it?
18:11It's exactly to fit in a standard 20-foot container.
18:17But you also make different varieties of unmanned underwater vehicles.
18:21Yeah.
18:22We have three base models.
18:24One is something like 1.5 to 2.5 meters fully electric with a range up to 100 kilometers
18:32and the payload up to 15 kilos.
18:34The other one is the middle one with a payload up to 500 kilos and the range up to 1,000, 1,200 kilometers.
18:42And this one has a range up to 2,000 kilometers and a payload up to five tons.
18:48All right.
18:49Thank you so much for joining us today.
18:50Really appreciate your time.
18:51You're welcome.
18:54All right.
18:55For our Comp Check this week, we are checking back in with our friends over at RedCat to
19:00find out what's going on with their Black Widow drone.
19:04Here to talk a little bit more about that is Stan Nowak with RedCat talking about the Black Widow.
19:10Stan, thank you so much for joining us.
19:11I really appreciate it.
19:12Yeah.
19:13So last year, we kind of introduced our audience to the Black Widow and its mission sets.
19:17Kind of, you know, fill us in on what's happened since then.
19:20Well, what's interesting is that we've been able to, you know, not only be the program winner
19:24for the short-range accountants program for the U.S. Army, but now we are actually in the
19:27NSPA catalog for the European Union and NATO.
19:30And that's a huge deal for us.
19:31That opens up a lot of doors to work with those frontline, you know, forces that are essentially
19:36going up against Russia as well along the Ukrainian border.
19:39Right.
19:40So we're here for our allied partners.
19:41We're here for our coalition partners.
19:42And Black Widow really is going to be the program of choice for a lot of those countries
19:47over there.
19:48And it seems like it's kind of opened up some doors for you in some other areas as well.
19:52And really, you know, the last year, Black Hat's really expanded in other domains beside
19:57the air.
19:58There's some USVs that you're also rolling out.
20:00Can I talk about that as well?
20:01Sure.
20:02Yeah.
20:03I mean, so when I was brought on board on RedCat about three years ago, our mission was
20:06to become an all-domain company.
20:07That's exactly why I was positioning it for the last three years.
20:10And we've now done that, right?
20:11We've just unveiled a new division called Blue Ops, which is our maritime division solely
20:15focused on uncrewed surface vessels.
20:17But really the thread to pull for an all-domain operations is that all these things are
20:21to be integrated together.
20:22So imagine swarms of boats holding swarms of our aerial assets.
20:26When you're starting to look at the next great conflict, which is going to be a completely
20:29different battlefield environment than Ukraine.
20:31We're talking about, you know, island chains.
20:32We're talking about hundreds of miles.
20:35You need delivery systems for these small drones because they're very limiting factors,
20:38right, from range and endurance.
20:39Well, let's get them close to the fight.
20:41We're trying to use, you know, larger fixed-wing aircraft and do marsupial deployment as well
20:45as then uncrewed surface vessels to actually get these things closer to the fight.
20:48And I wanted to bring up the marsupial development, so I'm glad that you did.
20:52You know, you just mentioned, you know, fixed-wing aircraft dropping stuff, but there's also
20:57unmanned surface vehicles that can be marsupial because they're going to launch other things.
21:01Kind of talk about how you're trying to really, you know, develop out this marsupial drone
21:06inside of a drone concept.
21:08Well, so we've been working with a hive company for a while called Sentient Robotics,
21:12and that started to, again, give us these ideas of deploying a massive amount of aerial assets
21:17from uncrewed surface vessels and, again, from the fixed-wing assets as well.
21:21When you start to look at even the U.S. Army, you know, we are in the SRR echelon,
21:26but if you're looking at MRR and LRR, the fact that we have an advantage because we're the smaller stuff,
21:31we can actually be integrated into those larger systems.
21:33And that's really where all this is going is all these echelons starting to work together
21:36so that the U.S. Army and other coalition forces can take advantage of these integrated systems
21:42and deploying these small drones from much larger drones.
21:44The same for the uncrewed surface vessels, right?
21:46It's how far can I go?
21:48Let's just say I'm getting towards a beachhead and I need to, you know, form a control point in an area.
21:52Well, I can send these drones as opposed to people and keep, you know, people out of harm's way.
21:56And everything's being operated from the rear.
21:58So that's really where it's all headed.
22:00And that's how you're integrating into the Army's MRR program, the medium range reconnaissance,
22:04is through that kind of integration. Is that correct?
22:06Yeah, yeah. So you're going to start to look at the other echelons actually holding our Black Widow systems
22:10or our FANG systems and being able to then be deployed from under wing.
22:15Again, being able to go a lot further than we can go just under our average drones and then being deployed.
22:20But they're all retrievable. That's what's great, you know.
22:22They can be attritable, but they can also be retrievable.
22:24Really appreciate your time today, Stan. Thanks so much for joining us so much.
22:27Yep.
22:31All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors.
22:35All right, folks, that's going to do it for us this week on Weapons and Warfare.
22:39But before we bug out, I want to highlight a hero from Mississippi.
22:43Jessica Bond was sleeping at her home with her two kids in the house
22:48when her son woke to the sound of their dogs barking at something in the yard.
22:53Her son tried to grab video of the animal, but...
22:56He said, I can't get a clip shot. He said, but mine is the monkey.
23:00So I said, oh, snap. Let me get my let me get my phone and let me get my gun.
23:05Let me call the police and stuff.
23:07The monkey she's referring to was part of a lab experiment at Tulane University's Research Center.
23:13The 40-pound primate was described as aggressive
23:16and escaped after the semi-truck carrying it crashed on the interstate.
23:21I'm not going to take my chances with my baby versus an infected animal.
23:28So I did what any mother would do.
23:31And I got out and I shot at the monkey.
23:36That's right, Bond.
23:38Jessica Bond wasn't going to wait around and see what this escaped, dangerous animal would do.
23:45She embraced her Second Amendment rights and took out an immediate threat to her family.
23:50As a former farm kid from Nebraska who had to grab a gun a time or two to protect myself and our property,
23:58I just have to say bravo Zulu, Miss Bond.
24:01Your kids are lucky to have a mom like you.
24:05And that's going to do it for us this week on Weapons and Warfare.
24:08As always, if you like what you saw and or heard, please like and subscribe to our social media feeds
24:14and download the Straight Arrow News app today.
24:16That really is the best way to get all of the great content that SAN puts out.
24:21So until next time, for senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer, and motion artist Dakota Patio,
24:28I'm Ryan Robertson for Straight Arrow News, signing off.