I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. Hundreds of U.S. Special Operations Forces, including Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, are now in the Middle East, as well as thousands of Marines and Army paratroopers, according to sources familiar with the deployments.
The NYT first reported the forces had arrived in the region. 
2. US President Donald Trump said on Monday that progress was being made in “serious discussions” with Tehran about ending the war, but warned that the US would destroy Iranian energy sites and infrastructure if a deal is not reached in the near future.
3. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the war on Iran has achieved more than half its aims, without putting a timeline on when it would end.
4. A month into the war with Iran, the Israeli military has almost completed bombing all of the targets it defined for itself at the start of the conflict, and has now been ordered by Israel’s political leadership to shift to hitting “economic” targets of the Iranian regime.
5. Israeli PM Netanyahu announced on Sunday that Israel would capture additional territory in southern Lebanon to expand a security zone on Israel’s northern border.
6. Iran on Monday defied Lebanon's expulsion order for its ambassador by saying he would stay.
Lebanese officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
7. The Japanese destroyer JS Chokai is now capable of launching U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles, making it the first Japanese warship that can strike targets beyond 1,000 kilometers.
Japan committed to acquiring 400 Tomahawks last year to equip its eight Aegis destroyers as part of a larger standoff capability.
8. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has rolled out the first production KF-21 fighter jet, less than two years after construction on it began and four years after the first prototype aircraft made it maiden flight.
The KF-21 is considered a 4.5 generation fighter jet and will be equipped with a mix of indigenous and Western sensors and weapons in service, including the KGGB precision glide bomb and European MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile.

For review:
1. US President Trump said Friday “Cuba is next. President Trump did not specify what he planned to do with Cuba, telling the media to “disregard that statement” before repeating “Cuba’s next.”
2.  US Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group & USMC 31st MEU Arrives CENTCOM AOR.
3. Pakistan’s prime minister said he had a “detailed” call with Iran’s president on Saturday, as foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey prepared to meet in Islamabad for talks on the war in the Middle East. The US and Iran are not expected to be present.
Top diplomats from Riyadh, Cairo and Ankara are due in the Pakistani capital Sunday and Monday,” the Pakistan foreign ministry said.
4. Yemen’s Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack at southern Israel on Saturday morning, triggering sirens in Beersheba, in their first offensive action since the start of the war.
5. The Israel Defense Forces assessed on Saturday that it would finish targeting nearly all of Iran’s key military industry sites in the coming days.
6. Two soldiers were seriously wounded and seven others were moderately hurt during clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Friday and overnight into Saturday, Israel Defense Forces said, as the terror group continued to pound northern Israel with rocket and drone attacks.
7. Last year represented the first time that all NATO countries met or exceeded the 2 percent benchmark on defense spending, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte revealed during a press conference on March 26, something he largely attributed to US President Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to end allies’ free-riding.
8. The US State Department has approved a proposed sale to Japan of equipment and services to support its program to develop hypersonic weapons.
The Foreign Military Sales (FMS) announcement on Wednesday flagged the possible sale to Japan in support of its indigenous Hyper Velocity Gliding Projectiles (HVGP) program, in a deal that would cost an estimated $340 million.
9. Last year, Army Materiel Command's LTG Christopher Mohan told Breaking Defense the Army was considering jettisoning the mobile cache in the Indo-Pacific, known as APS-3, in favor of dispersing the equipment throughout the INDOPACOM theater.  The reasoning behind the potential decision derived from the Army “doubling down on the INDOPACOM from a theater standpoint,” he said then.
LTG Mohan: “The idea is to put much of that ground based, and we started doing that in several countries overseas,” Mohan said in an interview. “The end state will be that we will have a much, much reduced APS afloat.”
10. The Trump administration will send its fiscal 2027 budget request to Congress on April 3, an Office of Management and Budget spokesperson confirmed today.

For review:
1. Ten U.S. service members were wounded Friday in an Iranian missile strike on Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reported. Friday’s strike reportedly damaged multiple U.S. refueling aircraft and involved Iranian drones.
2. The Pentagon is considering sending up to 10,000 more ground troops to the Middle East to potentially support operations in Iran in a move aimed at giving President Donald Trump more military options,  The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. 
3. US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was postponing his deadline for Iran to agree to an American proposal to end the war, setting a new date of April 6. President Trump is reported to be considering ordering a ground operation in Iran to pressure Tehran into acquiescing to American terms to end the nearly monthlong war.
4. The US expects the bombing campaign in Iran to conclude within weeks, not months, and Washington can meet all its objectives without using ground troops, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.
5. The Israeli Air Force on Friday bombed two of Iran’s largest steel factories, according to Iranian media and Israeli security sources, as well as two facilities linked to Iran’s nuclear program, in moves that sparked vows of retaliation from Tehran.
The Fars news agency reported that Israeli strikes hit Khuzestan Steel near Ahvaz and Mobarakeh Steel in Isfahan, two major production facilities.
6. From the Iran War, Pakistan has emerged as an unexpected mediator, offering to help bring Washington and Tehran to the negotiating table.
Pakistani government officials have said that their public peace effort follows weeks of quiet diplomacy, though they have provided few details. 
7. The Pentagon is weighing whether to redirect weapons originally meant for Ukraine to the Middle East, as the war in Iran strains supplies of some of the U.S. military’s most critical munitions, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
8. Russia is in contact with the United ‌States about a new round of talks on a Ukraine peace settlement as soon as conditions allow, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
"We remain open, we are in contact ​with the Americans, and we are counting on holding the ​next round of talks as soon as circumstances permit," Kremlin ⁠spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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.