Please welcome ceo anna palmer. [applause] good morning, good morning everyone. Thank you all so much for joining thus morning in person, and on a live stage im anna palmer ceo one of the founders of the punch bowl news im thrilled to be here for the popup conversation a bit of the news of the day, no shortage of that and whats happening in congress right now. Andrew our senior congressional reporter will join me on stage to comoderate that conversation a big thank you to rtx for partnering with us to make this conversation possible. Afterward, im going to be joined by henry brooks who is president of power and controls at collins aero space, as always you can find punch bowl news on all social media media at punch bowl news and share with this conversation this and with that introduce sage. [applause] thank you, thank you so much. All right. Well we have plenty to get to. We appreciate your coming this morning on a busy, busy time on capitol hill and andrew ill turn it over to you. Senator wariner over the weekend as you know Congress Passed a bill to Fund Government for 45 days. Its not include any aid for ukraine in it. I know you were outspoken about that on saturday. But the reasoning among you and your colleagues was that this outcome was much better than a government shutdown. Especially for someone like you who represents so many federal workers in the state of virginia. Right now, there are accelerated conversations on capitol hill about trying to get a larger scale ukraine package through. What are your expectations for that and how confident are you that that can actually get done here over the next couple of months . Well thank you andrew thank you anna. Yep. Saturday was about as bizarre a day as ive had, you know, i said like kind of down the rabbit hole up and down is up was kind of the description and you know, what was if you step back for a moment and look, you know, three days earlier, over 7 5 keeping ukraine aid and six senators now that might have gone up but six signed a bill and notion that 75, 85 both wanted ukraine aid so badly wanted it and that opponents were so opposed they were willing to even actually go above the democrats request for spending. And more than double the disaster aid was kind of a telling comment number one. There was a problem, i think, the administration i said this chairman of the Intelligence Committee in i still dont have 100 clarity of the 113 billion that weve approached 6 2 billion on defense side how much of that was left. The a little bit of hide the ball. It was a journal story this morning of about 5 billion. One account there was roughly 1. 9 i think theres lack of clarity and that made the case made the case harder for how immediate the needs were. I do believe the 45 days is going to be shaky i know it was a little weird coming on sunday traveling around virginia getting, you know getting at a boy for keeping government open shows it is falling a little bit. But on ukraine, its crazy. If you are thinking from a National Security stand point that we would take this moment and potentially walk away three things. One, and theres a great ad out that youve probably seen republicans for ukraine. That makes clear the point that the Ukrainian Military has done what we and nato american nato were planning to do for 60 years theyve eliminated 50 of Russia Military capacity. And other half theyve taken second most powerful military in the world and maybe made it second most powerful in ukraine and only 50 of the capacity. But after the cost of a stij American Life of nato. Secondly, in a moment when we have to reaffirm our alliances and we see extended nato theres somehow a signal that were not going to be there and election on saturday and public elections make no sense at all and part that i just i scratch my head because i hear more than senate guys saying well we dont really care about putin and ukraine. But were terrified about president xi in china and not understand the connection that if putin is successful in ukraine, that is a total green light. For xi and china if you dont get that you flunk geopolitics 101 so i think it is absolutely critical that we step up. I share Intelligence Committee know that china is our ultimate longterm potential adversary and between terms of Technology Competition and National Security and 2023 is more than tanks and guns. It is a. I. And 5g and Synthetic Biology and quantum computing but it also is for initial military and i think we really find the dollars i think there was enormous bipartisan interest in getting that. And the big question will become and ill i know youre quickly looking to punch bowl looking at the 45 other questions if you know, the question will be is it one more is it the whole four year slug or going to be in pieces many of the republicans feel we ought to go for a one year slug in the battle. In the republican argument weve heard from senator Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is that the majority of the money is being spent right here in the u. S. Actually it is not just going over as foreign aid. The argument here is were not cutting checks to ukraine saying have it figure it out but this can help the American Industrial base can you talk a little bit about that and do you think that that resonates with your fellow either democrats or republicans . Leader mcconnell has been strongest defenders as aid for ukraine. As any of us and i want to you know give him appropriate credit for that. And hes actually right of the 62 billion plus that are on the security side, the vast majority of it is going to american companies. For for an increasing our production lines, i mean, some of these area like the old artillery shells and 15 military shells we needs to increase economic capacity i dont have the number but i the overwhelming majority of this is going to the American Defense industry, and the administration then has been good about making sure that these were all out of our reserve not out of re current stock and we were bleeding into that by category. But i think mcconnell statement is right i think one thing we need more is clarity and ill, obviously, some of the things that were in this package, you know, fall on my side of the budget on the intel side so cant be spelled out. But i think making clear, clear accounting will be helpful as we go to the next battle. I want to switch gears to innovation at the department of defense can you talk about how dod can use international to have the most up to date technology and perhaps just as importantly help lower the cost for taxpayers . Well great question adrian, and when we talk first two examples one example is on overhead, and i think about this as well from the intel side as well of the dod side. I think when i first got on the Intelligence Committee that people at the nrl may have had a picture of me through darts at me and i kept trying to say on satellites lets go commercial. You know lets not simply have the large primes and buildings and big flat floating cows in the sky like nobody seen a james bond movie because you realize in the james bond movie they shoot down big massive satellites and not thought that through and weve made that to the point where weve got now you know, spacex we need some competitors there as well. I think on the kind of on the military traditional dod side theres still a lot of room for improvement. I remember early on in this job and havent been a business guy or a governor but ill fix defense procurement and somebody came in with 12 volumes of things when i relatively quickly gave up. One of the things were i am going to spending time. And is how we put together and again i want to note out here all of the funders on the private sector side in the Capital Stack from early stage to military stage because we still have the, you know, the crossing valley of death a great new Innovative Company trying to break into dod how to get a project of record and get that dip. One of the things fundamental change one there used to be a very small universe of funders but as we think about National Security not just tank guns and ships and planes but being a. I. Quantum, centers overhead, you know, frankly im going deep on Synthetic Biology and small modular nukes in areas to compete with china it is a much broader portfolio with a lot more companies who potentially funders they can help those Innovative Companies get there. We need a process and were looking at, you know, could each Security Sector each part of the ic pick four, five designated each year, its still up opportunity to create challenge how you get to the bureaucracy. Is there a way to examine that model. What do you hope to get out of it . Changing this kind of process is arrange arduous. Listen im a lot of those companies are in Northern Virginia but others are moving headquarters, to Northern Virginia. I think its not been its not been lack of innovation. Its been lack of having a procurement process that mos away from the traditional lines and frankly that department can take some risk. And i keep thinking what can we use the Ic Intel Community as a point of the sphere roughly you know, one tenth of the balance of the dod budget to push that and this study is a good one and more interesting in also seeing we can have the secretaries identify champions. But for all of the identification through the procurement process if we dont have a Capital Stack that has dissents Funding Source and it is much more robust than it was a few we had moved light years from where we were, you know, what five years ago when google said maybe we dont want to work with the dod and i quickly minded google leadership they didnt have any problem w working with the ccp in china on the same kind of you know, a. I. Related activity. Even across the traditional Tech Community go hes anxious to be in this. So thats all a good sign. We want to talk about a. I. In china and but first all of this in 25 minute. Were moving fast here folks i promise you ill help be the guide. I have 7 point plans on all of these. I want to talk, though, about the technology and sustainability a little bit. Theres been a lot of talk around the Defense Department updating that technology. Maybe commercial i no vaition can be helpful there. Like the hybrid cars for the air force, how important do you think this is in terms of finding sustainable technologies, the government kind of maybe incentivizing the dod to move in that direction. I know our next speaker will speak to that and theyve done a very good job but absolutely critical, and its like i was down in norfolk yesterday with our ship repair guys who were aghast at the potential government shutdown, and absurdity like if you finish repairing ship last year and youre in a cr you cant start your new business. You guys and in the Work Community have been only group of american who is understand what a cr is but you know, so i think there are ways we can push and dod can be helpful and part of the reasons so essential we literally spend hundreds of millions every year in virginia to raise the dock level where our ships stock because sea level rise. So the columns i have say we want to protect National Security but were going to ignore Climate Change or ignore sea level i wish they talked to the navy. So how do we do this on a sustainability basis . Im actually talking a lot with dod on this is im a huge advocate for small modular nukes in russia trying to promote these dramatically and one of the reasons why we need to we have three or four in processing this country dod is looking strongly at this because what im seeing as we need to move to sustainability were seeing some of the areas that we thought might be kind of and i never thought one size fits all but weve seen the industry go through a dramatic decline and seen our project going off the coast of virginia. But the administration is acknowledging not going to get 30 mega watts half of the projectses off the east coast fallen into cant make it with the current financing. They never question concerns about what about our sailors being on aircraft carriers. This is an area i hope that we from the i see can push this. What a competitor china and russia projects Artificial Intelligence, big topic right now capitol hill pretty specially on the senate. Shipper is leading a push on this trying get legislation sometime next year recent held a closeddoor form with tech executives and industry stakeholders future of cybersecurity. As well as the carcass of the intel. You worry Artificial Intelligence could make it look like childs play. About a difference in our election could you talk about what you mean by that and what the process to think for congress to actually get something done next year . [laughter] first of all, i think i spend as much time on Artificial Intelligence as anyone in the senate and i give credit to schumer for bringing everyone along but i had a dozen plus sessions all bipartisan. And bringing in the whos who as well. Secondly ive never been involved in a subject for the more time i spend on it does not equate to supports one step back. Im never seen something with the promise was radically changed. We go way back back in time the last november with sam altman, and all the other folks coming in, the operating premise was that winter and ii will have the most scale the most data whos got the most money. A geopolitical standpoint huge amounts of data all the right things. Open ai microsoft and google and now amazon. They wouldnt dominate the field on large language models. Thirty get the march that premise a change. Suddenly you have lom coming out of uae for pennies on the dollar. The whole premise you are to build everything around a large language model meant attached specifically industry applications and fundamentally change. I dont think there will be near enough about how economic has changed. Whole question of Building Security build it in on the arms race that may not be billing the security. That brings us to where you go on legislation . I am very much skeptical, having seen congress zero for 100 record on doing anything on social media. We have been blown away on everything i remember what i was so naive last march with this bipartisan idea of god have the framework on how to deal foreign technology. Tiktok was one example coming on the basis of a wall way. This is going to be so easy we narrowly roll along until they drop a wondered milliondollar sponsoring organizations like yours and others. It is hard to push back. For those of you as i told you so i look at the recent story tiktok employees are leaving like mad. Theyre still security risks i am going to answer question what does this look like on legislation . I think those who are optimistic think we can have a holistic legislation. Probably too much too quick. There is huge bipartisan concern we do not want to you guys figure out will putting guardrails later. So, where would i start . Where could ai have the most dramatic Effect Tomorrow in terms of exponentially greater disruption and greater undermining of institutions . I would argue that the two domains multiple liberals this moment one, and elections 2016 would be childs play compared to what 2024 both in terms of the amount of not just depot fakes at the time and scale with which you can create these tools is exponentially higher. Weve seen a democracy alone a legislative approach robert will have enough to get through. One of the other area you could have as much if not more thats confidence in our Public Markets there is been a one example the deep fake of the pentagon and had a little bit of market disruption. By a whole seven minutes i could take it there all the different ai tools that could undermine confidence in individual stock. My sense from a political sausage making if we could combine the socialist those of the two entities, institutions that can be most undermined. People say theres always been a misinformation and disinformation tools out there. This happens at a scale and a speed we can never predict for the last several make on this theres a lot of members on both sides want to sit think about this. There are analogies. This is not a perfect one, not a perfect one, not a perfect one. We had weapons of war forever. You shoot somebody with a gun we have decided as a Society Things like chemical weapons and Nuclear Weapons would have a higher penalty. Not perfect analogy but the notion ai around confidence in public elections and Public Markets the tools could be so much more powerful than traditional disruption there may be either higher penalty lower threshold of proof. It is still a little bit how do youprohibit on the front end. But i think directionally this is where i think we could put together the idea and guardrails even in a congress that his challenge. Recognizing course not doing this in a vacuum that weve got ones that you pay has another china and terms of the domestic im under no allusion to the rules would apply and how they use ai. Fixed operating premise here is were not pointed it was didnt social media as they will figure out later projects we are quickly running out of time. I want to give it to andrew to talk china you broke the news this morning for. And punch bowl news a. M. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is headed to china later this week. Spring and Bipartisan Group with him senator mike crapo i know you have worked very closely with is the leader public at on that trip. What you make of the majority leader of United State Senate going to china . What can the reasonably expect the expectation to be coming out of this trip question but Something Else we reported there trying to meet with president sheehan china. Have both been china hawks. Its really Important Initiative stated this earlier i talked about china. It is important to make as a pulpit policymaker fits what you believe make clear your beef is with the ccp and president shes support and not the chinese people. Because too often if you dont make that they will put out on we check where the whole chinese desperate reads is an empty chinese racist. I think this follows. I am not for decoupling i think we have to have a realistic eye i commend the majority leader and mike for putting this delegation forward. I think we have to be tough hide about saying china is a great nations secondlargest economy in the world. We want to work to be you cannot keep stealing 600 billion of intellectual property each year. Youve got authoritarian and surveillance regimes. What youve done to the treatment of the weaker people are the people of hong kong. And i think we need to be realistic go back to russia. Russia wasnt ideological military threat china is investing in domain after dont domain and technology await we did in the 60s i was a wireless guy with a wakeup call for me was 5g at one point the winning player but there also setting the standards. I think we push back there. Put a chips a bill through we need to be clear with china we intend to compete with them on quantum computing, on ai and all of these domains. There is await we could Work Together but we are are not going to take our eye off the ball about how china is with a focus that at some points may end up undermining. Other investment ai if not release a large language model because they dont trust their people to ask a question. I still take our hand over china in particular at this moment in time you got a lot of countries that are frankly dissatisfied customers. I applaud with the centers are doing but its a great time for us to reopen conversation with countries in africa and south america, the balance of asia. So i hope that will be part of the agenda that delegation as well we got through many topics not all of our questions but we are out of time for it bk you sent really appreciate it. [applause] thank you. Hearts are right a big thank you to andrew for joining me this morning. Now i like to welcome henry brooks. President of power controls that are aerospace and rtx business for fireside chats. [applause] henry. [applause] thank you, thank you, good morning. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Flying up. You also have some personal excitement happening with family a newborn coming. So punch bowl news we need it. We need it. I want to lay the groundwork here a little bit. Tell us for those who are in the audience and do not know what exactly is Collins Aerospace . What do you build . Have people heard of that they should know about . First thank you for having here today it really is a great opportunity had also like to thank fedor warner for coming in today as well. Its the work that he is doing that enables our industry so we really appreciate that. Collins aerospace is a company thats part of rtx. In that business consists of Collins Aerospace, as well as raytheon, the company. Together there about 182,000 employees and that business its a great business with great reach. Go back to Collins Aerospace is by 80000 employees we are spread pretty much all over the world. We have a number of products about every airplane that you can think about whether it is commercial or whether it is military. One example for instance for ben working with the dod now and the effort we are doing rtx for rtx Collins Aerospace actually needs it. Whether its defense or commercial Collins Aerospace is right in the middle. We are proud to be in that position. Lets talk about a big announcement this morning that was made around nasa sustainable flight demonstrator. This is a program supported by boeing and collins. You talk about the announcement and implications going to have when it comes to enabling fuel . This whole things about sustainability. When you think about it today at the Aerospace Industry creates about 2 of the world Greenhouse Gases, that is a lot number one rethink about it. But, if we did not think within the next 18 to 20 years will be upwards of 20 of the worlds Greenhouse Gases in the Aerospace Industry. Why is that . Every other industry is working to get sustainable as well. Our business has the unique ability to create products and services the 66 great demonstrator and nasa is behind it i like to think center warner for his work as well to work that out we get funding for it. The idea there is we will fly it it involves the whole business of rtx we are proud of that. We will fly it and demonstrate a thinner wing its a trusted brace type wing at the different composition if you will. But because of that we think we better efficiency for the airframe itself. We get better efficiency for an while the engines are going to be on it. Talk about reducing emissions barely heard the sender speak a little bit about sustainability. Any Different Industries particularly with the dod. Reducing emissions for nextgeneration single aisle aircraft . I sure can. [laughter] im ready for you henry, you and me. [laughter] we are on this journey together because i like it, i like it. Think about the next generation than industry has before it a lot over the last number of years but lets think about this way. 787 went to a more electric architecture. A lot of the systems that were hydraulic are now electric if you will. That was one thing and help the fuel burn and help with a lot of things. Going forward where we are at is saying if we were to actually able to remove one of the thermal burning enders or something and create a hybrid version of it . Think about it like the cars we have out there now the hybrid cars they take some of that use away from the while itself and create a hybrid solution for it. We are working diligently to the same thing for airplanes. Weve got demonstrators flying and canada de haviland eight part of the program essentially what we are doing is removing one of the edges replacing it with a 1 megawatt motor. That being the case you will fly hybrid electric plane. We are excited about it because it can very quickly reduce the amount of fuel burn in an airplane. Now, it being realistic i wish i could buy a ticket for these two flight tomorrow. But you are not going to see a plane leaving the earth with only electric motors in the next while. Its going to take a while to generate a Comet Development actually tested. And lets be honest the regulation for doing this part of it is create a more Sustainable Future for aerospace which is really important. You also seed in the defense part of the market as well. The think we do and invest in for the commercial market they have taken a turn you will see the same basic technologies in the defense market as well. Think about the b52 which we are all in. Think about several of the products the east seven we are on as well. They are fighting their way into the Defense Products and platforms as well. What will it do for us . It will do better cost if we do commercial from a commercial perspective at a better cost and leading Edge Technology you would have to develop otherwise over taxpayer dollars so we are proud of the work that goes on there but there is a lot of sustainability we could talk for that for long type a quick its interesting in the sense were tied with innovation and how you foster that and how to work at dod thats a lot of talking about therapy. Yes it really is. Was talk about a new app called the grid in Rockford Illinois youre here now were going to be going to illinois after this. It has just been unveiled. What is the goal . The grid is one of the most exciting things we have done. One of our businesses selective Power Generation with debt of about 75 years. We are on a lots but we have an enviable position of most commercial and defensive platforms out there. What the grid it does is moves it to the next level to an integrated lab that gives us to test 1 megawatt motors and also has two scale up larger motors. I talk but over a period of time youll be able to remove thermal burning engines or at least remove some of the lower and create hybrid solutions with these motors. This lab is at the heart its enabling that to happen. So what you will see the lab will be able to test end to end systems if you will so we can see how they interact with thermal burning engines and so forth variable to the grand opening for that tomorrow in rockford, illinois. My finish this im going there. We are going to a legitimate opening. I am really proud that Team Continues to do its all about sustainability. Its giving us one more Building Block to get us out there were sustainability is the key to the future of Aerospace Industry. It has got to be. Were quickly running out of time. A lot of these things are pretty forwardlooking. How far are you projecting . When youre thinking about tapping at the grid or the electrification of some of these engines. I assume its a 20 or 30, what is the horizon there . X industry has said it will be Carbon Neutral by 2050. That is the goal. Carbon neutral by 2050. When you think about that there are a lot of Building Blocks so what we need to make that work is we are going to need continued funding from congress precontinued funding from the government and the partnerships we are working through to make it all Work Together. We are deciding on what technologies going to win. There will be winners and there will be losers we are trying to make sure we are on the right side of that equation. And i think we will be as far as that goes. 2020 30 year journey for the next single aisle according to the airframe or you are trying talkabout late 30s. Something we can all afford too. The last question here we often leave these fireside chats you live in charlotte we have a lot of folks watching this who are regulating thinking about rules. What is one thing you hope they are thinking about the industry youre working for . Only 15 of ort 20 not 2 for 20 of the World Population has flown. So i think about this industry think about the number of people on this earth, this industry has to become more sustainable so that as it grows and takes caree of the plant that we live on. That is important for us. That being the case is going to take continued technology development. Continued government interaction as well to make sure with got the right programs. Make sure we are spending money in the right places and that we have the right private public partnerships. As we go through this process we write the regulations properly and so forth. This is all about sustainability. Getting from where you are today to where you need to be tomorrow and making sure those technologies will enable our industries she will continue to flourish as industry continues to grow. 20 of almost 8 billion people have flowed think of that pentup demand if you will and then think about if its on the basis of today it would not be good for our industry because of the Greenhouse Gases we would admits. Therefore this is urgent that we take care of and we get it right. I so want to leave their thank you so much for your time this morning we appreciate it. I went to go to in person and on the live stream thank you for joining us for making a conversation possible as well as rtx for partnering with us on this conversation. You can check out our events hub. Stay safe everybody. [laughter] thank you sir. [background noises] [background