I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. US CENTCOM Commander: CENTCOM Forces have redirected 42 x commercial vessels attemtiong to violate the Strait of Hormuz blockage.
2. President Trump told Axios he's going to keep Iran under a naval blockade until the regime agrees to a deal that addresses U.S. concerns about its nuclear program.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has prepared a plan for a "short and powerful" wave of strikes on Iran in hopes of breaking the negotiating deadlock, three sources with knowledge said.
3. The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday announced it had located and destroyed two major Hezbollah tunnels in the southern Lebanon town of Qantara, which it said were constructed by the terror group with “direct guidance” from Iran.
The tunnels were built over a decade, reaching depths of some 25 meters.
4. US Secretary of War appears in hearing before the US House Armed Services Committee.
5. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he discussed a possible ceasefire in the four-year war in Ukraine in a phone call with Russian President Putin.
He spoke after the Kremlin reported the two leaders discussed a temporary Ukraine ceasefire to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II next month.
6. The UK Ministry of Defence will resume tests and acceptance of Ajax fighting vehicles after a safety review cleared the program to move forward.
 7. Australia has announced further boosts for its army with the acquisition of more Lockheed Martin High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) for long-range strike and Thales Bushmaster wheeled armored vehicles.
8. The first of the new Columbia-class of ballistic missile submarine is tracking for a 2028 delivery due to improvements in workforce efficiency and the supplier base, General Dynamics officials said Wednesday (District of Columbia - SSBN-826).

For review:
1. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that a reported offer from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under strict conditions is not acceptable to the United States or other countries.
Secretary of State Rubio: “What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up, and you pay us.”
2. The IDF said it launched a wave of airstrikes Monday against Hezbollah infrastructure in the Beqaa Valley and several areas of southern Lebanon as a fragile ceasefire appeared to be rapidly unraveling just days after it was extended.
The strikes came following repeated recent attacks by the Hezbollah on IDF troops and Israel during the truce, including a deadly FPV drone attack in Lebanon the previous day that killed an IDF soldier and wounded six.
3. Battered but still breathing, Hamas is set to hold a long-delayed internal election to choose a new chief and political bureau in the coming weeks.
Hamas generally holds leadership elections every four years, but the latest vote, initially scheduled for 2025, was delayed by the war sparked by the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre. 
4. Israel sent the United Arab Emirates an Iron Dome air defense system with troops to operate it early in the war with Iran, two Israeli officials and one U.S. official tell Axios.
5. A 14 percent increase in European defense spending contributed significantly to global military expenditure increasing for the 11th consecutive year, reaching $2.89 trillion in 2025, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank.
6. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, with the Russian president telling the Iranian diplomat that he hoped for peace soon.
7. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov held talks in Kyrgyzstan on Monday with Iran’s Deputy Defense Minister Reza Talaei-Nik, state-run TASS news agency reports.
8. Under Project Sea 3000, Australia and Japan inked a deal to buy three upgraded Mogami-class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The contract was signed by the two countries’ defense ministers aboard JS Kumano in Melbourne earlier this month.

For review:
1. US President Donald Trump canceled a trip to Islamabad by two envoys to meet Iran war mediator Pakistan on Saturday after Iran’s foreign minister flew out of the Pakistani capital following talks, dealing a new setback to peace prospects.
Presidnet Trump said in a social media post that he had called off the planned visit by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, citing what he said was tremendous confusion in the Iranian leadership.
2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to go after Hezbollah targets “with force” on Saturday, as the terror group and the Israeli military continued to trade fire in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, despite the extension of the tenuous ceasefire between the warring sides by several more weeks.
3. East Coast carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) is now operating in the Middle East after a sailing around the southern tip of Africa, U.S. Central Command announced on Thursday. 
Bush’s entrance into CENTCOM marks the first time three carriers have been in the Middle East since the height of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) has been operating in the Arabian Sea since January while USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) has been operating in the Red Sea since last week, USNI News reported.
4. North Korea recently launched five short range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) armed with cluster munitions against an island target in the Sea of Japan for the second time this month, further trialing the warhead’s capabilities, state media reported Monday.
5. USAF plans to more than double its F-15EX Eagle II fleet to 267 aircraft, up from the previously planned 129, as part of the fiscal 2027 budget request rolled out this week.
 The revised plan calls for 24 additional Eagle IIs next year at a cost of roughly $3 billion, according to the service’s fiscal 2027 budget request.
6. The Pentagon’s Munitions Acceleration Council (MAC) is homing in on 14 legacy and “emerging” munitions as part of its ambitious plan to ramp up the production and ink a series of multi-year deals, according to fiscal 2027 budget documents.
The Legacy Weapons: 
·        Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors
·        Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) interceptors 
·        Standard Missile-3 IIA 
·        SM-6
·        SM-3 Block IB
·        Tomahawk Land Attack Missile 
·        Joint Advanced Tactical Missile  
·        Low-Cost Cruise Missile 
·        Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile 
·        Maritime Strike Tomahawk 
·        Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range
·        Long Range Anti-Ship Missile
Emerging Capabilities: 
·        Low-Cost Hypersonic Strike Weapon 
·        Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 1 
7. US Army has unveiled plans for the future of its ground vehicle fleet, as well as what it refers to as its biggest modernization priority: Next Generation Command & Control (NGC2). 
The newly released budget documents reveal, that the service is looking to procure over 100 XM30 vehicles in the coming years, provide hundreds of millions of dollars for the Mobile Tactical Cannon (MTC) program, and invest almost $4 billion across consolidated NGC2 budget lines.

For review:
1. Iranian forces seized two container ships on Wednesday, according to global security monitors and the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They also attacked but didn’t seize a third.
2. US President Donald Trump on Thursday said the US Navy would “shoot and kill” any boat mining the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel was ready to renew the fighting with Iran and was awaiting a “green light” from the US to target Iranian energy sites and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
3. The ceasefire between Israel & Lebanon will be extended by another three weeks, President Trump said after hosting the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors in the Oval Office on Thursday.
4. French President Macron said Thursday he will not continue in politics after leaving in 2027, after serving two terms, the maximum number allowed.
5. The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but only if such a meeting is to sign peace agreements.
6. France is moving closer to a decision on its future rocket artillery system, with the country testing domestically developed weapons this month that will allow for a comparison with foreign systems in a few weeks’ time, the head of the country’s armaments agency said.
7. Estonia’s government has decided to put on hold its planned acquisition of new infantry fighting vehicles.
The Baltic nation will instead direct the funds toward drones, counter-drone measures and air defense systems, while squeezing more service life out of the country’s existing fleet of second-hand CV90 vehicles.
8. John Phelan is out as the Secretary of the Navy, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

For review:
1. The Board of Peace’s lead envoy for Gaza admitted Monday that talks with Hamas on disarmament were going to take more time, even though the deadline he gave for the terror group to accept his proposal on handing over its weapons expired nine days earlier.
“We’ve had some very serious discussions with Hamas over the last few weeks. They’re not easy,” Nickolay Mladenov told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Brussels. “
2. Hours before a two-week ceasefire with Iran was set to expire, US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he was extending the truce for the time being and that the US will hold off on attacking Iran.
Israel and the US have been preparing for a resumption of the war since the ceasefire began, sources familiar with the matter told the network, including conducting exercises involving fighter jets and refueling tankers across the Middle East.
3. The Hezbollah terror group violated a ceasefire in Lebanon on Tuesday by firing several rockets at Israeli troops stationed in the south of the country, as well as launching a drone at Israel, the military said.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the attacks, which it claimed were in response to Israeli violations of the ceasefire.
The IDF said that it struck the launcher used in the attack within a few minutes.
4. A second round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon will take place on Thursday, an Israeli and a US official tell The Times of Israel.
5. The head of the U.S. command for the Indo-Pacific region on Tuesday stressed the importance of Taiwan passing its stalled defense budget, saying the United States “can’t want Taiwan’s defense more than they want it itself.”
Taiwan’s President last year proposed $40 billion in extra defense spending to counter China.
6. US Department of War Releases FY27 Defense Budget Request of $1.5 Trillion.
7. The U.S. medium-sized USV fleet could jump from roughly four to 30 vessels by 2030 in the Indo-Pacific, according to officials.
8. US SOUTHCOM is standing up a new unit aimed at connecting tactical missions to long-term outcomes with unmanned systems.
The development of the Autonomous Warfare Command was mandated by the SOUTHCOM CDR, GEN Francis Donovan (USMC).
9. The Air force’s Experimental Operations Unit conducted hands-on testing with the Anduril YFQ-44A aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, California.