i'm vago muradian. the reporter who broke the story, plus britain's newest nuclear attack submarine has spent months in us waters, undergoing tests. but first, events in europe have always helped shape american history. during the american revolution france's hatred of britain prompted king louis 16 to the colonies. throughout the cold war europe and a divided germany were at the heart of the a nato alliance between between nato and the soviet union. washington struggles with budget cuts and shifts its focus to asia. what is next for the atlantic alliance? our next guest is fred kemp, president and ceo of the atlantic do council, an organization born in 1961 to foster close relations between the united states and europe. fred is an editor and the author of berlin 1961, kennedy, kruschev. >> i am a member of the atlantic counsel. >> and we are proud of it. >> the administration is in the midst of a strategic pivot from afghanistan and iraq over to asia. at the same time, there are growing calls from the

administra ♪[ music ] >>> welcome to this week in defense news i am vago muradian.ast week the obama administration previewed the highlights of a 5 year defense spending request that will be submitted to congress february 13th. leon pan net at that said the cuts would total over $259 billion over five years highlights include cutting nearly 75,000 active duty and marine corps personnel, maintaining the current bomber fleet, 11 aircraft carriernovel sea base to support forward deployed forces cut six fighter squadrons, retire aging airforce transport planes and cancel several programs including the c-27 transport and version of the global hawk unmanned aircraft. investment in time and technology would be maintained and new bomber and missile subdevelopped, a joint fighter would be delayed to reduce program risk and save money is the administration on the right track will they deliver real savingcapability as hoped and how will u.s. congress respond i am joined by rick mays congressional editor, lauren thompson of the lexington institute. todd harrison center for stra

thanks for joining us for "this week in defense news," i'm vago muradian, you can watch this program online at defensenewstv.com or e-mail me at vago@defensenewstv.com. i'll be back next week at the same time.