S8 Ep682: 4. Josh Rogin analyzes Europe’s lagging defense spending and Ukraine’s burgeoning drone industry. He discusses American drone development challenges, restrictive ITAR regulations, and the competitive race with China over manufacturing-focused AI technolog
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
4. Josh Rogin analyzes Europe’s lagging defense spending and Ukraine’s burgeoning drone industry. He discusses American drone development challenges, restrictive ITAR regulations, and the competitive race with China over manufacturing-focused AI technologies. (4)
April 1931
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchew, Josh Rogan, who's writing for the Washington Post on intelligence gathered from the |
| 0:23.3 | government, from the government point of view, about the magic of AI, the magic of Silicon Valley, |
| 0:29.3 | social media, the skill set that's developed in these last decades. And what is to be done |
| 0:35.3 | of working with the U.S. government that, to my last check, |
| 0:38.7 | still hasn't successfully audited the Defense Department, not even once. They don't know what they |
| 0:43.6 | have. So now they're acquiring more skills and what is to be done. All right, we leave Washington |
| 0:48.7 | to study the future. What about Europe? You mentioned immediately regulations in capital. Is it |
| 0:57.2 | right now participating in the game or is it still getting its shoes on? Right. Well, one of the, |
| 1:03.4 | you know, side-on effects of the war in Ukraine is that the Europeans have realized that they need to spend a lot more for |
| 1:11.9 | their own defense and they fall in way behind. And there's about $400 billion of new European |
| 1:17.6 | defense spending up for grabs. And the idea is that a lot of that should go to developing |
| 1:23.8 | Europe's defense industry, which is, as you mentioned, just sort of lagging behind |
| 1:27.8 | due to, like, excessive regulation, they don't have really big capital markets to spur innovation. |
| 1:33.0 | And overall parochialism within the EU, every country wants to have the factory in its country, |
| 1:38.1 | and every country wants its company to get the contract. |
| 1:40.3 | And when you've got 29 of those, well, things can just sort of lag on. Now, that's still |
| 1:46.8 | $400 billion up for grabs. And so eventually that money will get spent. And the question is, |
| 1:52.8 | whether or not they're going to, again, spend it on the things that they need to prepare for the |
| 1:57.1 | future, which is sort of like AI and automation and research and innovation, |
| 2:01.1 | or spend for the things that are going boomed today. And that's, you know, shells that go in |
| 2:05.7 | howitzers and, you know, missile interceptors and small drones and nets to catch small drones. |
| 2:12.4 | And those are two very different missions. And I think what we're finding is that the Europeans are just sort of, you know, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.