Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News. Marty Lenz Ginagondek, Good morning.
The Pentagon confirms it as officially accepted the luxury jet
from Cutter.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And President Trump has plans for a Golden Dome missile
defense shields that could cost tens of billions. Joining us
now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline with what
we need to know. Defense reporter for Politico, it's Jack Dutch. Jack,
thank you so much for your time. As always, let's
start with the Golden Dome here, explain the concept of
what we're looking at and what already exists, what could
(00:29):
be part of the Golden Dome, and what systems would
still need to be added.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So the US has mostly forty four ground based missile
interceptors across California and Alaska. The idea is to take
that and under the Golden Dome concept, make it nationwide,
so you put sensors and shooters all the way across
America and then perhaps in space to try and track
missiles as they're launched over the North Pole, because that's
(00:56):
the capability that Russia and China are building. The line
those types of missiles from submarines to launch cruise missiles
which fly at lower levels, to launch ballistic missiles, and
to launch hypersonics which can be fast moving and can't
be sensed by modern day sensors, So very much a
next generation concept. One of the things that's going to
(01:17):
be interesting to see is the relationship with Canada, which
has gone so far south in the last few months.
Canada will likely be heavily relied upon to put up sensors,
to put up shooters, to be involved in this concept
because they're so far north, because of that key geography.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Jack, this is if folks are listeners old enough to remember,
this is very similar, it seems like to Ronald Reagan's
Star Wars. It was actually called the Strategic Defense Initiative,
the SDI. How is this different forty years hence in
the price tag of one hundred and seventy five billion dollars,
is that a little wish casting to me? It sounds
like that would be way more expensive.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, the estimate is way below what the Congressional Budget
Office is already forecast, which is a closer to five
hundred million. Perhaps Trump looking at one hundred and seventy
five billion dollar bill for this, But yeah, I mean
this is certainly something that we've looked at all the
way back to the Reagan administration. During the first Trump administration,
there was talk of building a space based sensor layer
(02:16):
and being able to shoot down missiles from space. So
it's a concept that's long been in the works in
defense world. Just talking to some CEOs and experts yesterday,
it seems like there's more optimism that this can be
done now, but certainly the price tag is going to
be a major question, and some Democrats I talked to
(02:38):
last week, including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, just questioning
the concept. Overall. You don't need to be able to
shoot down every missile in order to desert Russia and China.
You just need to have a foolproof system that can
at least defend the bulk of the country or most
areas of the country.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So Jack, with all that being said, I mean, how
realistic is it and how long to take in order
to have this entire defense bubble over the US.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It depends on who you talked to. One CEO, the
CEO of ULA, which helps launch rockets for the US government,
told me yesterday that the timeline does seem to be accurate.
They could have an initial concept by the end of
the year, but there's a lot of skepticism, and air
defense has usually been a very tricky thing for the
US government and foreign governments to try and do them.
(03:25):
You just look at how long it's taken the US
to get air defenses to Ukraine, let alone build our
own air defenses. So this would require just at least
in the short term, the US recalling a lot of
its air defenses from around the world, be it IJA's
ships or those bad missile batteries that have been sent
to the Middle East and South Korea. So you'd be
(03:47):
looking at a situation at least if you wanted to
make this operational in the short term, where the US
would have far less missile defense coverage for its troops
around the world and have more of it back home.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Late yesterday, as the President accepting the gift of the
Katari jet from Cutter, you cover the Pentagon, Jack. Are
you surprised that the Pentagon is willing to accept this
or is this just the mo of this current administration
and how the Pentagon runs.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well, it's certainly the mo of Donald Trump and heg
Seth and the Pentagon are going to follow orders on that.
It doesn't seem like it certainly. Even though the administration
has taken receipt of this gift, we've been told it's
been at an airfield in San Antonio undergoing repairs for
(04:34):
the last several weeks to try and get it up
to speed. But that doesn't diminish the concerns that we've
heard from Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans talking about
the potential of bugs in this aircraft. So it's going
to need to be stripped down all the way to
the studs to remove any potential listening devices, and then
you don't even have the capability to refuel this jet
(04:57):
in mid air. You need to add that capability because
air Force one is essentially a mobile nuclear command center.
That's where the president would go in the event of
a nuclear attack or if they needed to call a
nuclear strike potentially and there was an ongoing war. So
you just don't have the ability in this jet to
(05:17):
do what the Air Force one mission states. So it's
unclear what role this is going to be able to
fill and what timeline will be delivered when you're talking
about all this work.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's what I was going to ask next Jack, when
we talk about a timeline of this, Is there any
type of estimate that we can see when we look
at it with the amount of security and upgrades that
they need to do. Are we talking years? Are we
talking months? Is there any estimate?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
We're probably talking years at least two years, So I
mean we'd be halfway, if not two thirds or three
quarters away through a Trump two administration. And then there's
the question of if Trump is taking receipt of this gift,
if it's going to go to the Trump Library, which
some Democrats areqtioning, could be a violation of the Constitution
(06:02):
or federal law. So there are a lot of legal
questions swirling around this four hundred million dollar gift from
Qatar and just how much it's going to cost the
taxpayer to strip this down and make this safe for
the president when there's already an Air Force one program
that should be preparing a new jet, though it is
far behind schedule.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
We have discussed the emoluments clause with our legal experts,
and yeah, Jack, I've heard that price tag could be
actually the price of the plane itself, an extra four
hundred million dollars to retro fit it. We appreciate you
reporting on this from Politico defense reporter, it's Jack detch
It is Colorado's Morning News. Marty Lenz Ginagondek, Good morning.
The Pentagon confirms it as officially accepted the luxury jet
from Cutter.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And President Trump has plans for a Golden Dome missile
defense shields that could cost tens of billions. Joining us
now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline with what
we need to know. Defense reporter for Politico, it's Jack Dutch. Jack,
thank you so much for your time. As always, let's
start with the Golden Dome here, explain the concept of
what we're looking at and what already exists, what could
(00:29):
be part of the Golden Dome, and what systems would
still need to be added.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So the US has mostly forty four ground based missile
interceptors across California and Alaska. The idea is to take
that and under the Golden Dome concept, make it nationwide,
so you put sensors and shooters all the way across
America and then perhaps in space to try and track
missiles as they're launched over the North Pole, because that's
(00:56):
the capability that Russia and China are building. The line
those types of missiles from submarines to launch cruise missiles
which fly at lower levels, to launch ballistic missiles, and
to launch hypersonics which can be fast moving and can't
be sensed by modern day sensors, So very much a
next generation concept. One of the things that's going to
(01:17):
be interesting to see is the relationship with Canada, which
has gone so far south in the last few months.
Canada will likely be heavily relied upon to put up sensors,
to put up shooters, to be involved in this concept
because they're so far north, because of that key geography.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Jack, this is if folks are listeners old enough to remember,
this is very similar, it seems like to Ronald Reagan's
Star Wars. It was actually called the Strategic Defense Initiative,
the SDI. How is this different forty years hence in
the price tag of one hundred and seventy five billion dollars,
is that a little wish casting to me? It sounds
like that would be way more expensive.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, the estimate is way below what the Congressional Budget
Office is already forecast, which is a closer to five
hundred million. Perhaps Trump looking at one hundred and seventy
five billion dollar bill for this, But yeah, I mean
this is certainly something that we've looked at all the
way back to the Reagan administration. During the first Trump administration,
there was talk of building a space based sensor layer
(02:16):
and being able to shoot down missiles from space. So
it's a concept that's long been in the works in
defense world. Just talking to some CEOs and experts yesterday,
it seems like there's more optimism that this can be
done now, but certainly the price tag is going to
be a major question, and some Democrats I talked to
(02:38):
last week, including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, just questioning
the concept. Overall. You don't need to be able to
shoot down every missile in order to desert Russia and China.
You just need to have a foolproof system that can
at least defend the bulk of the country or most
areas of the country.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So Jack, with all that being said, I mean, how
realistic is it and how long to take in order
to have this entire defense bubble over the US.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It depends on who you talked to. One CEO, the
CEO of ULA, which helps launch rockets for the US government,
told me yesterday that the timeline does seem to be accurate.
They could have an initial concept by the end of
the year, but there's a lot of skepticism, and air
defense has usually been a very tricky thing for the
US government and foreign governments to try and do them.
(03:25):
You just look at how long it's taken the US
to get air defenses to Ukraine, let alone build our
own air defenses. So this would require just at least
in the short term, the US recalling a lot of
its air defenses from around the world, be it IJA's
ships or those bad missile batteries that have been sent
to the Middle East and South Korea. So you'd be
(03:47):
looking at a situation at least if you wanted to
make this operational in the short term, where the US
would have far less missile defense coverage for its troops
around the world and have more of it back home.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Late yesterday, as the President accepting the gift of the
Katari jet from Cutter, you cover the Pentagon, Jack. Are
you surprised that the Pentagon is willing to accept this
or is this just the mo of this current administration
and how the Pentagon runs.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well, it's certainly the mo of Donald Trump and heg
Seth and the Pentagon are going to follow orders on that.
It doesn't seem like it certainly. Even though the administration
has taken receipt of this gift, we've been told it's
been at an airfield in San Antonio undergoing repairs for
(04:34):
the last several weeks to try and get it up
to speed. But that doesn't diminish the concerns that we've
heard from Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans talking about
the potential of bugs in this aircraft. So it's going
to need to be stripped down all the way to
the studs to remove any potential listening devices, and then
you don't even have the capability to refuel this jet
(04:57):
in mid air. You need to add that capability because
air Force one is essentially a mobile nuclear command center.
That's where the president would go in the event of
a nuclear attack or if they needed to call a
nuclear strike potentially and there was an ongoing war. So
you just don't have the ability in this jet to
(05:17):
do what the Air Force one mission states. So it's
unclear what role this is going to be able to
fill and what timeline will be delivered when you're talking
about all this work.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's what I was going to ask next Jack, when
we talk about a timeline of this, Is there any
type of estimate that we can see when we look
at it with the amount of security and upgrades that
they need to do. Are we talking years? Are we
talking months? Is there any estimate?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
We're probably talking years at least two years, So I
mean we'd be halfway, if not two thirds or three
quarters away through a Trump two administration. And then there's
the question of if Trump is taking receipt of this gift,
if it's going to go to the Trump Library, which
some Democrats areqtioning, could be a violation of the Constitution
(06:02):
or federal law. So there are a lot of legal
questions swirling around this four hundred million dollar gift from
Qatar and just how much it's going to cost the
taxpayer to strip this down and make this safe for
the president when there's already an Air Force one program
that should be preparing a new jet, though it is
far behind schedule.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
We have discussed the emoluments clause with our legal experts,
and yeah, Jack, I've heard that price tag could be
actually the price of the plane itself, an extra four
hundred million dollars to retro fit it. We appreciate you
reporting on this from Politico defense reporter, it's Jack detch
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