I - On Defense Podcast

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.

For review:
1. American forces seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship after it tried to bypass a U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman, President Trump said Sunday.
“Guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) intercepted M/V Touska as it transited the north Arabian Sea at 17 knots en route to Bandar Abbas, Iran. American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the Iranian-flagged vessel it was in violation of the U.S. blockade,” the US Central Command says in a statement.
 2. Vice President JD Vance will lead a U.S. delegation for another round of talks with Iran in Islamabad before the ceasefire is scheduled to end on Tuesday night, two U.S. officials tell Axios.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that talks with Iran on extending the ceasefire would resume on Tuesday, while the Islamic Republic indicated it was not planning to send a delegation and was pessimistic about the prospects of the talks.
3. Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
4. The Israeli military on Saturday confirmed carrying out several strikes in southern Lebanon over the previous day against Hezbollah operatives who “violated the ceasefire understandings,” in the first such action since the truce took effect at midnight between Thursday and Friday.
5. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said Hezbollah was responsible for the death of a French soldier in an attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, while the UN Interim Force in Lebanon blamed “non-state actors,” code for the Iran-backed terror group.
6. Australia has outlined plans to boost its defense spending to three percent of its Gross Domestic Product in the coming years, while reaffirming that the US remains its closest ally and principal strategic partner.
7. Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is now operating in U.S. Central Command, two defense officials confirmed to USNI News on Friday.
Ford joins the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group already in CENTCOM. 
The move to the Red Sea comes as a third carrier strike group is approaching U.S. Central Command. USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77) is transiting around the southern tip of Africa, heading to the Middle East, USNI News reported last week.
8. If the US Army gets its way, it will not be buying additional M109A7 Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) howitzers next year as it looks at alternative options to fill the gap.