I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. The U.S. military is preparing to deploy at least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming days, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.
2. Chief of the US Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, says the American military has struck over 10,000 targets in Iran since the start of the war, as part of which it destroyed two-thirds of the regime’s military production facilities.
3. Iran has been laying traps and moving additional military personnel and air defenses to Kharg Island in recent weeks in preparation for a possible US operation to take control of the island, according to multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.
4. Iranian officials on Wednesday gave a cold reception to the current US proposal to reach a ceasefire, as the White House warned Tehran it would be hit harder than before if it did not accept the offer to end the conflict.
5. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem purportedly said Wednesday that negotiating with Israel under fire would amount to “surrender” for Lebanon, and urged the government to reverse its ban on the party’s military activities.
Mr. Qassem called on the Lebanese people to embrace “national unity,” saying this could be achieved by the government reversing its decision to ban Hezbollah’s military activities.
6. Lebanon’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it had withdrawn the accreditation of Iran’s ambassador, giving him until Sunday to leave the country.
7. Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Israel will maintain control of a “security zone” in southern Lebanon, up to the Litani River, until the threat of Hezbollah is removed.
8. Airstrikes in Iraq killed 15 members of Iraq’s umbrella group for Iran-backed Shiite militia on Tuesday, the deadliest attack on the group since the Iran war began.
9. Recent Israeli airstrikes off the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea targeted a key shipping route used by Iran and Russia for the exporting and importing of weapons, including those used by Moscow in its war on Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
10. The United States has tied its offer of security guarantees for a Ukraine peace deal to Kyiv’s giving up its entire eastern Donbas region to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

For review:
1. The United States is reportedly planning a weeks-long operation to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an Israeli report claimed Sunday
2. In a bombshell announcement, US President Donald Trump revealed early Monday that his administration was engaged in productive talks with Iran regarding a “complete and total resolution” of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic.
Trump’s initial statement, made on social media, came nearly two days after he had threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants unless it opened the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. 
On Monday, Trump said he had postponed those strikes for five days to allow for more negotiations.
3. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday evening that any deal to end the hostilities between the US, Israel, and Iran would protect Jerusalem’s “vital interests,” in his first comments since US President Donald Trump announced earlier in the day that he was holding talks with Tehran about ending the war.
4. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, is taking a more central role, as Israeli and US strikes pick off the Islamic Republic’s political leadership, making him a critical figure at a decisive moment.
5. The Israeli Air Force blew up a bridge over Lebanon’s Litani River on Sunday, accusing Hezbollah of using it to move operatives and weapons into the country’s south, as Israel warned that its fight against the Iran-backed terror group had “only just begun.”
6. In partnership with France, Germany says it is working to a deadline next month aimed at resolving a long-running industrial dispute over the troubled New Generation Fighter (NGF) element of Europe’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS). 
7. Polish Deputy State Assets Minister Konrad Gołota has announced that Poland is considering to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), aiming to involve its defense sector in the project to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet.
8. Lockheed Martin Australia is seeking to sustain the Australian Army’s fleet of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) vehicles in-country.
The company is working with Rheinmetall Defence Australia to explore potential opportunities at the latter’s military vehicle production and sustainment facilities.
9. Direct talks between US and Iran could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week. A Pakistani official and a second source tell Reuters that direct talks on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.

For review:
1. The United States struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility on Saturday, several media reports claimed, 
Iranian media said US-Israeli forces attacked the Shahid Ahmadi-Roshan Natanz enrichment complex on Saturday morning. Technical experts found that no radioactive leaks had occurred, and nearby residents were not at risk.
2. US President Donald Trump on Friday ruled out a ceasefire with Iran, as American officials said more US Marines were headed to the Middle East in a possible sign of a coming ground operation three weeks into the war.
3.  US President Donald Trump threatens to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
4. The Pentagon is reportedly sending the Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and the rest of its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), loaded with elements of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). 
This follows reports last week that the America class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and its ARG, carrying elements of the 31st MEU, had also begun moving from the Pacific toward the Middle to support ongoing operations against Iran.
5. The Israeli Air Force recently struck an Iranian nuclear weapons research and development site in Tehran, the military announced on Saturday, as Israel and the United States continued their operations to eliminate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
6. Iran was “unsuccessful” in targeting the joint UK-US Indian Ocean military base at Diego Garcia, a UK official source confirmed on Saturday, a day after the Wall Street Journal reported Tehran fired two ballistic missiles at the base but failed to hit it.
The Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia air base — located about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Iran — indicated Tehran has in its stockpile missiles that can travel much further than it had previously acknowledged.
7. A British nuclear-powered submarine equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles has taken position in the Arabian Sea, giving Britain the capability to launch long-range strikes if regional conflict escalates, the Daily Mail reports.
Reuters cannot immediately verify the report. The British Ministry of Defense does not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
8. Over 100 people were injured by Iranian strikes in the southern cities of Dimona and Arad on Saturday.
Iranian state media said the strikes were targeting Israel’s nuclear research facility, located some 10 kilometers (six miles) outside of Dimona and 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) outside of Arad, in retaliation for an alleged US attack on Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility earlier in the day. 
9. Hezbollah fired several rockets at northern Israel on Saturday, damaging a number of buildings and infrastructure, as the Israeli Air Force struck targets belonging to the terror group, and soldiers operating in south Lebanon killed gunmen in exchanges of fire.
The army announced Saturday that its 162nd Division had completed preparations ahead of deployment in southern Lebanon.
If the 162nd is deployed, it would bring the total number of IDF divisions operating in southern Lebanon to five.
10. The disarmament proposal presented to Hamas by Gaza ceasefire mediators this month in Cairo envisions all armed groups in the Strip gradually handing over their weapons over the coming months, two Arab diplomats familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.
The proposal requires Hamas to — within 90 days — hand over its heavy weaponry, such as missiles and rocket launchers, in addition to maps of its tunnel network.

For review:
1. The Israeli Air Force struck Iranian gas infrastructure in the country’s south on Wednesday. The strikes targeted Iran’s massive offshore South Pars natural gas field. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes on the gas facility, but an Israeli official confirmed the strike was carried out by the IAF.
2. US President Donald Trump said early Thursday that he would not allow another Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field.
3. US War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said the US would again launch “the largest strike package yet” in the ongoing US-Israeli campaign in Iran, and said Israel’s recent strike on an Iranian gas field was a “warning.”
“To date, we’ve struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure,” Secretary Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing. “ 
4. Iran can no longer enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
“After 20 days, I can tell you — Iran today has no ability to enrich uranium, and no ability to produce ballistic missiles,” said PM Netanyahu.
5. The Israel Defense Forces said it struck Hezbollah targets in response to the Iran-backed terror group’s rocker barrage on northern Israel overnight.
The IDF also renewed its call for residents of Hezbollah’s southern Lebanon heartland to flee northward, and said it would bomb crossings used by Hezbollah to move troops and equipment south over the Litani River, which runs some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the Israeli border.
6. Israel reopened the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Thursday, allowing a group of Palestinians wounded in the Israel-Hamas war to leave for treatment after a nearly three-week closure due to the war with Iran.
7. The Pentagon plans to ask lawmakers for some $200 billion in supplemental funds to pay for operations in Iran and refill American munition stockpiles, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said today. 
8. The U.S. Army has confirmed that its first operational Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon battery is only weeks from full fielding.

For review:
1. Top Iranian official Ali Larijani was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight Monday-Tuesday, Israel’s military and top leaders announced on Tuesday.
The Israel Defense Forces said that the commander of Iran’s oppressive Basij force had been killed in a separate overnight strike as well.
2. US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US would not be fighting Iran for “much longer,” but declined to give a clear timeline, as he disparaged NATO for not doing more to help.
President Trump reiterated his disappointment with NATO over its members’ refusal to heed the US request to help secure the Iran-blocked Strait of Hormuz.
3. European NATO allies pushed back against demand from President Trump to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force.
4. The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it has pushed even more forces deeper into southern Lebanon to create an expanded buffer zone, as Hezbollah attacked towns in northern Israel with rockets and drones.
5. Gulf Arab states did not ask the US to go to war with Iran, but many are now urging it not to stop short by leaving the Islamic Republic still able to threaten the Gulf’s oil lifeline and the economies that depend on it.
6. The US aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, deployed in operations against Iran, is expected to temporarily pull into port after a fire on board, US officials said on Tuesday, the 18th day of the war with Tehran.
The carrier, America’s newest and the world’s largest, is currently located in the Red Sea. It is expected to temporarily go to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, the two officials said.
7. US President Donald Trump mused over whether he would have the “honor of taking Cuba” on Monday.