Hudson Institute

And almost all of that range comes from tankers.

Tim Walton of the Hudson Institute has been one of the leading thinkers on aerial refueling for some time, and his new report, part of a series that he's been working on, argues that the force change how it executes the mission and advocates for a new medium-sized tanker that could very well be a blended wing-body aircraft.

And we'll have this week's headlines in AirPower.

And it's all powered by GE.

It's hosted by Vago Muradian.

And it is my pleasure to welcome back to the program today, Tim Walton.

He is a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute Think Tank.

And he is the co-author with his colleague, Shane Dennen, of the thoughtful new report, Resilient Reach, Redesigning Aerial Refueling for Contested Global Operations.

Another item, this is also from the war zone, hardened shelters critical to survival of U.S. Air Force's tanker fleet.

And this is about a study from the Hudson Institute.

There's a report they put out titled Resilient Reach, Redesigning Aerial Refueling for Contested Global Operations.

Did we learn something interesting from this, Micah?

Yeah,

that kind of makes sense.

Another recommendation that came out of this Hudson Institute report is they really kind of focused on blended wing body tankers.

One of the recommendations is that we should field a medium-sized, long-range, high-offload tanker capable of flying a modest distance into contested airspace, such as a medium-sized blended wing-body tanker.

She's probably paid pretty handsomely.

She's paid by the Hudson Institute, which is fully neocon word, cheerleading outfit.

You don't just change gears on principle.

You need to keep the, you know, the checks coming.

Tune in again tomorrow for the Air Power podcast.

Joining me and my co-host, J.J. Gertler, will be Tim Walton, a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute Think Tank, who is the co-author, with his colleague Shane Dennen, of the great new report, Resilient Reach, Redesigning Aerial Refueling for Contested Global Operations.

Don't miss it.

Thanks very much again.

Well, good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to Hudson Institute.

I'm Joel Scanlon, Executive Vice President here at Hudson.

It's a real pleasure to welcome you to today's conference, AI Power and National Security, Open Models, Governance, and Military Competition in the US-China Era.

First, can open-weight models help build a trusted US-led AI ecosystem while managing the risks of diffusion and misuse? Second, how can policymakers establish guardrails that address real safety and security concerns without weakening the experimentation, investment, and decentralized innovation that have long been American strengths? Third, how should the United States and our allies employ AI to strengthen deterrence and military readiness while maintaining human judgment and avoiding miscalculation or escalation? These are not abstract questions.

The outcomes will affect the competitiveness of our economy, the resilience of our institutions, the credibility of our alliances, and the global balance of power.

Hudson Institute has long focused on the relationship between American leadership, technological strength, and international security.

My thanks to the distinguished leaders from industry, government, academia, and the defense who have joined us today and bring their experience to this timely conversation.

Welcome back, everybody, to What Really Matters.

I'm Bill Drexel here at the Hudson Institute in Washington with Walter Russell Mead of Hudson Institute, The Wall Street Journal, and the Hamilton School at the University of Florida.

Let's start with this week's news.

The first story of the week is hard to avoid.

you considered where you want to go into exile when you're driven out of your home studio there?

As I last visited the headquarters of the Hudson Institute, I noticed there is an empty room adjacent to yours.

And I think if you could lend me a mattress, I could use that room for a while.

You think, though, but I mean, the United States is unstable as well.

laid out the map for us to understand all this.

John Fonte.

And we're going to have a conference in his honor at the Hudson Institute in December, and that's our friend John Fonte.

That's right.