{"id":6947,"date":"2026-08-18T00:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/6947\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:40:21","slug":"apdr-podcast-episode-149-with-host-kym-bergmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/6947\/","title":{"rendered":"APDR Podcast Episode 149 with host Kym Bergmann"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/k-dex.kr\/eng\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-68022 size-full\" title=\"KDEX Banner 728x90\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/K-DEX-Banner_728x90-1.png\" alt=\"KDEX Banner 728x90\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"  \/><\/a>Some reflections on vital infrastructure prompted by a journey on a high speed train from Luang Prabang in Laos to Kunming in Southern China. The part of the railway in Laos took a mere five years to build through some of the most difficult terrain imaginable. Around 60% of the line runs through tunnels. How is it that Laos \u2013 one of the poorest countries in Asia \u2013 can build infrastructure but Australia struggles?<\/p>\n<p>At least we will now have a Parliamentary inquiry into national resilience. We have a look at the strange episode where Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said that the deployment of USN Virginia class submarines to HMAS Stirling would end in 2032. Since then the government has walked that back \u2013 but what was it all about? Did Australia just try to blackmail the US?<\/p>\n<p>Finally some thoughts on US military technology, which looks like it is veering in some very strange directions. However, our sycophants in Canberra refuse to acknowledge that something alarming is unfolding.<\/p>\n<p>To listen to the podcast, click <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/7H1pAmVMKYs?si=76SpIjpYpZjO2CeV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/#News_Bulletin_Form\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22782 size-full\" title=\"APDR_Bulletin_728X90\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/APDR_Bulletin_728X90.gif\" alt=\"APDR_Bulletin_728X90\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For Editorial Inquiries Contact:<br \/>Editor Kym Bergmann at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#fb908296d5999e899c969a9595bb8d9e958f8e899a969e9f929ad5959e8f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><br \/>For Advertising Inquiries Contact:<br \/>Group Sales Director Simon Hadfield at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#f182989c9e9fdf9990959798949d95b187949f858483909c94959890df9f9485\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Web-RatesSpecs-AUD.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/APDR_728x90_leaderboard.gif\" alt=\"leaderboard\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some reflections on vital infrastructure prompted by a journey on a high speed train from Luang Prabang in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[451,1021,407,14,453,2360,113],"class_list":["post-6947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-apdr-podcast","tag-aukus","tag-china","tag-defence-industry","tag-kym-bergmann","tag-laos","tag-military-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}