I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. US military intelligence-gathering flights are surging off the coast of Cuba, a CNN analysis of publicly available aviation data shows.
Since February 4, the US Navy and Air Force have conducted at least 25 such flights using manned aircraft and drones, most of them near the country’s two biggest cities, Havana and Santiago de Cuba, and some coming within 40 miles of the coast, according to FlightRadar24.
2. US President Donald Trump on Monday said the ceasefire with Iran was “on life support,” a day after he rejected the proposal submitted by Iran over the weekend for a permanent truce.
3. The United Arab Emirates carried out military strikes on Iran, making it the only other country to join the United States and Israel in its war against the Islamic Republic, according to a report on Monday.
During the US-Israel war on Iran, Tehran launched sustained attacks on the UAE, firing some 550 ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 2,200 drones, according to the Emirati defense ministry, making it the most targeted country in the region, including Israel.
4. The UK and France will on Tuesday host a multinational meeting of defense ministers on military plans to restore trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said.
The announcement came hours after Iran warned London and Paris against sending warships to the region.
5. The EU has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that the Kremlin-friendly former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder could serve as a European mediator in peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
6. A 10-ship Russian convoy transited Japan’s Tsushima Strait to enter the East China Sea over the weekend, according to Japan’s Joint Staff Office.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) spotted two Russian corvettes, a fleet oiler, a tugboat and six cargo ships around 5 p.m. Saturday sailing southwest 140 kilometers northeast of Tsushima.
7. Taiwan’s parliament has approved a proposed government boost to defense spending after a protracted standoff — although it pared back the proposed supplementary budget by a third, and limited spending to US defense systems. 
8. United States, Philippine, Japanese and Canadian forces combined land, sea and air platforms to sink two decommissioned ships off the western Northern Luzon coast during Balikitan 2026 last week, according to a Defense Department release.

For review:
1. President Trump Announces Russia & Ukraine Ceasefire and Priosner Exchange.
The ceasefire will begin on Saturday and run through Monday, President Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prisoner swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country."
2. NYT Report: Russia is sending drone components to Iran via Caspian Sea shipping, US officials told the NYT in a report published Saturday, turning the world’s largest lake into a key conduit for both covert and overt trade.
3. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff met today in Miami with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, as Doha assists in efforts to mediate a permanent ceasefire deal between Washington and Iran, a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.
Qatar has been quietly operating as a go-between, while allowing Pakistan to play the main mediating role, the source says, confirming an earlier report.
4. Fresh “sporadic clashes” broke out Friday between Iranian and US naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media, marking the latest flare-up despite a monthlong ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
The fighting came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington expected a response from Tehran on Friday to its latest proposal.
5. Iran’s foreign ministry issued an unusual warning on Wednesday to the “rulers of Abu Dhabi,” the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
It accused the tiny oil-rich state of conspiring with the United States and Israel against Iran, and threatened “dangerous consequences” unless the Emirates pulled away from those countries.
6. Israel reportedly set up a secret military base in the Iraqi desert in February in order to support its aerial campaign against Iran.
7. The UK will deploy one of its warships to the Middle East as part of planning for a European-led mission to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once there’s a stable ceasefire. 
France recently announced it had moved its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the Red Sea in a move aimed at signaling that the coalition stood ready to secure the strait.

For review:
1. US Secretary of State Rubio announced new sanctions Thursday on Cuba's military-industrial enterprise, its leader and a state-owned natural resources company.
2. US President Donald Trump says three US Navy destroyers transited out of the Strait of Hormuz under fire, adding that the American destroyers were not damaged but “great damage was done to Iranian attackers.”
3. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday that he had met with the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in early March.
President Pezeshkian did not say when their meeting took place.
4. The US will host the third round of ambassador-level talks between representatives from Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15, a State Department official and an Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel on Wednesday.
Joining diplomats from each side will, for the first time, be military representatives, an Israeli official said, adding that the sides would discuss more concrete measures that can be taken to disarm Hezbollah.
5. Israel on Wednesday evening carried out its first airstrike in Beirut since before the ceasefire in Lebanon entered into effect last month, killing the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, who the military said had advanced plans to invade the Galilee.
6. The 23-year-old son of Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya succumbed Thursday to wounds sustained in an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Wednesday, a hospital and senior Hamas official said.
Reports of Azzam al-Hayya’s death came as Hamas leaders were in Cairo to discuss the future of the ceasefire agreement.
7. The United Arab Emirates transferred $100 million to the Board of Peace in recent days to fund a contract for the training of a new Palestinian police force for Gaza, a US official and a Middle Eastern diplomat told The Times of Israel this week.
8. Israel said Thursday that it was working to help counter rat infestations in Gaza, helping move hundreds of cartons of rat poison into the territory as the warmer weather sees a surge in pests spreading through the tents of displaced Palestinians.
9. European Council President Costa said on Thursday that he believed there was “potential” for the bloc to negotiate directly with Moscow, adding that it had the backing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to do so.

For review:
1.  A high-level Trump administration official informed Iran on Sunday of the impending US operation to "guide" ships through the Strait of Hormuz and warned Tehran not to interfere, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge.
2.  US President Donald Trump says the US will be pausing the operation it launched just one day earlier to assist vessels stuck in the Strait of Hormuz due to progress made in talks toward a permanent ceasefire with Iran. 
3.  The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on Tuesday it would respond firmly to any ships that diverge from Iran’s approved route through the Strait of Hormuz, as Israeli television reported US President Donald Trump came close to ordering renewed strikes over the weekend before calling them off. 
4.  Iran fired over a dozen missiles and several drones at the United Arab Emirates on Monday, renewing attacks on the Gulf state for the first time since a fragile ceasefire took hold last month. 
The UAE Defense Ministry said its air defenses had engaged 15 missiles and four drones fired by Iran. 
5.  The United Arab Emirates’ contracting authority has inked a deal with Brazilian firm Embraer to procure 10 C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft with an option to procure 10 more in the future.
 With this deal, the UAE is the first country in the Middle East to be on contract with the C-390 aircraft. 
6.  Germany’s ambitions to close a long-range strike capability gap are facing a fresh setback after the Trump administration moved to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from German soil and effectively shelved a Biden-era plan to temporarily deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 missiles there. 
7.  The U.S. Army Pacific’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force and the Philippine Army Artillery Regiment have test-fired a Tomahawk cruise missile from the Typhon Launcher in the central Philippines — and successfully hit a target around 600 kilometers away. 
8.  USMC Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told audience members in Washington on Thursday that the demand for ARG-MEUs has exceeded the 3.0 presence he previously called for. 
Calls for ARG-MEUs are coming from the U.S. military’s Southern Command, European Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command. 
A 3.0 presence indicates a three-ship ARG-MEU deployed at all times: one out of the East Coast, one out of the West Coast and the 31st MEU delivering periodic deployments out of Okinawa, Japan.

For review:
1. President Trump said the U.S. Navy will start guiding ships from foreign countries through the Strait of Hormuz from Monday and warned that if Iran tries to disrupt the process the American military will use force.
2. US President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end its war with the US and Israel, calling it unacceptable.
The 14-point proposal reportedly includes multiple stages of negotiations, with the sides first bringing the fighting to a close and opening the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.
 The US and Iran would only later begin talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, according to reports on the Iranian terms. 
3. Amid a spike in Hezbollah drone strikes against Israeli troops stationed in southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he has initiated a counter-drone project.
4. Israel will procure two more squadrons of F-35I and F-15IA fighter jets from the United States, following lessons learned from the recent Iran war, the Defense Ministry announced on Sunday.
5. NATO said on Saturday it was working with the United States to understand Washington’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany as a rift in transatlantic ties deepens over the Middle East war.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Friday the withdrawal of around 5,000 troops from Germany was expected “to be completed over the next six to twelve months.”
6. Naval aviators will no longer command amphibious warships, according to a directive issued last week by Chief of Naval Operations Daryl Caudle.
Citing poor amphibious ship readiness and operational availability, Caudle said that surface warfare officers would become the only officers authorized to command amphibs starting in Fiscal Year 2028, according to the April 24 memo reviewed by USNI News.
7. The Defense Department’s unfunded priority lists have hit Capitol Hill. Two of the military services and several combatant commands said they have no unfunded requirements due to the size of the $1.5 trillion defense budget request for fiscal 2027.
In the UPL letters, leaders of the Marine Corps, Space Force, Strategic Command, Space Command, Africa Command and Central Command,  told Congress that they had no unfunded requirements for the year.