I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1.The Swedish Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, published its global arms export and import report on Monday, comparing the arms exports of various countries in the years 2016–2020 to 2021–2025.
2. Kurdish rebels say they are ready to fight the Islamic Republic, but hope for an uprising before they intervene, with or without US support.
3. In a press conference at the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Tuesday would be “the most intense day of strikes” on Iran. “The most fighters, the most bombers, the most intelligence, more defined and better than ever.”
At the same time, he said, the last 24 hours saw the lowest number of missiles Iran has fired over the course of one day in the ongoing campaign.
4. The US military said it destroyed 16 Iranian minelaying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, the key waterway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil shipments travel.
“US forces eliminated multiple Iranian naval vessels, March 10, including 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz,” the US Central Command wrote on X.
5. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Tuesday that Israel was not seeking an “endless war” in Iran, while hosting German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul in Jerusalem.
While declining to give a timeline for the operation, Mr. Sa’ar said Jerusalem does not aim to continue the conflict indefinitely and would coordinate with Washington on when to end the fighting.
6. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday his country would keep fighting as long as necessary, casting doubt on US President Donald Trump’s insistence the previous day that the conflict would be over “soon.”
And the Islamic Republic’s security chief, Ali Larijani, dismissed Trump’s “empty” threats, insisting that the people of Iran did not fear them.
7. About half of the roughly 300 ballistic missiles Iran has launched at Israel in the current war carried cluster bomb warheads, according to Israel Defense Forces assessments published Tuesday.
8. British warplanes have begun “defensive air sorties” in support of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and taken out drones elsewhere in the Middle East amid the ongoing war, the UK defense ministry says.
More US B-52 bombers landed at the UK air force base in Fairford, in southwestern England, today, AFP witnessed, after a first one landed on Friday.
9. Saudi Arabia says that it has intercepted seven ballistic missiles in separate attacks targeting an airbase and its eastern region.
10. The IDF says it has launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The strikes come after the military on Tuesday reiterated its warning to evacuate the area, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh.

For review:
1. Turkey said on Monday that NATO air defenses shot down a second ballistic missile that was fired from Iran and had entered Turkish airspace, warning it will take any necessary steps against threats.
2. Turkey deployed six F-16C fighter aircraft to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Monday, defense officials here said.
The warplanes were sent as part of a phased approach to enhancing security in light of recent developments in the region, the Ministry of Defense wrote in an announcement.
3. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, after an incoming Iranian missile was intercepted in Turkey’s airspace.
4. The French Navy will send eight frigates and two amphibious assault ships to the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, joining aircraft carrier FS Charles De Gaulle (R91).
5. US President Donald Trump doubles down on his threat to strike Iran with unprecedented force if it stops the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
6. US President Donald Trump said Monday he was “not happy” with the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s next supreme leader, and asserted he had a replacement in mind, without saying who that was.
7. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards pledge allegiance to the country’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, after he was appointed his father’s successor by the Assembly of Experts.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps… is ready for complete obedience and self-sacrifice in carrying out the divine commands of the Guardian Jurist of the time, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei,” the Guards say in a statement.
8. President Donald Trump described Iran War as “short term” Monday — suggesting the 10-day conflict could be nearing its end while also warning of intensifying strikes if a key oil route is restricted.
9. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it will “determine the end of the war” in the Middle East after US President Donald Trump said the conflict would end “soon.”
“It is we who will determine the end of the war,” the IRGC says in a statement.
10. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges Iraq’s leadership to keep protecting the US embassy after violent protests over the US-Israeli war on neighboring Iran.
In a call with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Rubio “reiterated the importance of the Iraqi government taking all possible measures to safeguard US diplomatic personnel and facilities.
11. Another Iranian naval vessel has sought refuge in a neutral port following an expansion of the Iran conflict to the Indo-Pacific and U.S. efforts to target Tehran’s naval forces.
IRIS Lavan (514) docked at the Port of Kochi following engine troubles, government officials told Indian news outlet Wion.
Alongside the now stricken frigate IRIS Dena (75) and currently interned oiler IRIS Bushehr (422), Lavan was a part of Tehran’s diplomatic naval mission around the Indian Ocean region. 
12. Talks to advance US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war have been on hold since last week when the US and Israel jointly attacked Iran.
The pause threatens to stall implementation of Trump’s flagship Middle East peace initiative.

For review:
1. Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was chosen Sunday to succeed him, despite never having been elected or appointed to a government position.
A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since the start of the war.
2.  US President Donald Trump told The Times of Israel on Sunday that a decision on when to end the war with Iran will be a “mutual” one that he’ll make together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
3. Israel Defense Forces chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned on Sunday that there was “no safe place” for the Iranian regime to hide.
The military provided details on a strike carried out on Saturday against the newly appointed military secretary to Iran’s supreme leader, 
Abol-hasem Babian, who was appointed last week- was confirmed killed by the IDF.
4. Iranian Fars news agency reported that Israel's Saturday strikes hit four oil storage facilities and an oil production transfer center in Tehran and Alborz. 
Residents reported the smell of burning lingering in the air, with many saying it appeared dark even as the sun rose and rain poured on the city. 
5. ·NYT Report:  Iran may be able to access and move highly enriched uranium that had been previously thought to have been buried underground by US strikes on the Isfahan nuclear facility last June.
6. ·Emirati officials raged on Sunday over what they called false Israeli media reports claiming that the United Arab Emirates had carried out a military strike on Iran amid the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.
7. · Saudi Arabia has told Tehran that while it favors a diplomatic settlement to Iran’s conflict with the United States, continued attacks on the kingdom and its energy sector could push Riyadh to respond in kind, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

For review:
1. Six top defense contractors have agreed to quadruple production of what President Donald Trump has termed “Exquisite Class Weaponry” following a meeting at the White House on munitions production.
Meeting attended by:
RTX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, BAE, L3 Harris, & Honeywell.
2. US President Donald Trump said Saturday he ruled out Kurdish involvement in the war with Iran, saying Washington does not want the conflict to become “more complex.”
3. The United States has started using British bases for certain operations against Iran during the Middle East war, the UK’s government announced on Saturday.
Britain’s defense ministry said the US had begun using the military sites for “specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region.”
4. Israel continued its military campaign against Iran overnight Saturday, striking key missile infrastructure and IRGC aircraft, as Tehran launched repeated salvos of ballistic missiles at Israel and issued new threats against European countries that might join the war.
5. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran would continue unabated and that the “moment of truth” was nearing for Iranians to overthrow their government.
His comments came as the IDF said it struck Iran’s two “most central” ballistic missile sites, and, in an apparent first, oil infrastructure in Tehran.
6. Iran’s president apologized Saturday for attacks on regional countries even as its missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states, indicating that Tehran’s political leadership either cannot or does not seek to exercise full command over Iran’s armed forces. 
On Saturday, Fox News reported that the US was expected to deploy a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
7. On Saturday, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets and drones from Lebanon at northern Israel, with no reports of injuries.
The IDF on Saturday confirmed launching a new wave of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district, a Hezbollah stronghold.
8. says it carried out a targeted strike on key commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
It says the targets were members of the Lebanon Corps of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s extraterritorial arm, who “acted to advance terror plans against the State of Israel and its citizens from Lebanese territory.”
9. Helicopter-born Israeli commandos landed deep in eastern Lebanon in an overnight raid aimed at locating the body of missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad, the military said. 
The raid was accompanied by heavy Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 41 people, according to local officials. There were no Israeli casualties.
The Israel Defense Forces said no findings relating to Arad were discovered during the operation in Nabi Chit. 
10. US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Latin American nations to use military power against the “cancer” of drug cartels and offered to support them with US missile strikes targeting narco kingpins.

For review:
1. Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands will send naval assets to protect Cyprus in the coming days, Rome’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament on Thursday. Crosetto said the deployment would occur in the coming days.
2. The Washington Post reported Friday that Russia has been assisting Iran in its war with the US and Israel by providing intelligence on the locations of American military assets in the Middle East. The report cited US officials familiar with the details.
3. A massive Israeli strike Friday morning destroyed the underground Tehran bunker of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, which was being used by senior regime officials.
4. US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he needs to be “involved” in selecting Iran’s next leader, days after Israeli strikes killed the country’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
5. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set the goal of assassinating Iran’s late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, back in November, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday night.
6. According to the IDF, more than 550 aerial refuelings have been carried out over the skies of the Middle East since the war began, allowing hundreds of IAF fighter jets to operate in Iran, located over 1,500 kilometers (nearly 1,000 miles) from Israel.
7. Iran will target the Israeli nuclear site of Dimona if Israel and the US seek regime change in the Islamic Republic, semi-official ISNA news agency reported Wednesday, citing an Iranian military official.
8. Iran said Thursday it had attacked Kurdish forces in Iraqi Kurdistan to prevent them from launching an assault on its western borders, amid reports that such an attack was coming or had even begun.
The Iranian claim came as Kurdish officials told The Associated Press and The Washington Post that US President Donald Trump had personally spoken to their leaders in recent days and requested their assistance in the campaign. 
9. Israel has been holding its own talks with Iranian Kurdish insurgent groups based in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan for around a year, two Iranian Kurdish sources said, while an Israeli source said talks had been “long-term.”
10. The Israel Defense Forces has advanced further into southern Lebanon in recent days.
The developments came as Israel appeared to expand its offensive into Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday night, launching a series of strikes on the Hezbollah stronghold, of the densely populated area known as the Dahiyeh, after ordering all residents  to evacuate.
11. Hezbollah spent months restocking its arsenal of rockets and drones, using support from Iran and its own weapons factories to prepare for a new war with Israel, six sources familiar with the Lebanese terror group’s preparations said.
12. Saudi Arabia has intensified direct engagement with Iran to help contain a war in the Middle East, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing several European officials
Saudi officials in recent days have used their diplomatic backchannel to Iran with increased urgency to ease tensions and keep the conflict from worsening, the report said.  It added that several regional and European nations are backing the Saudi efforts, the officials quoted in the report said.
13. The Trump administration plans to meet executives from the biggest US defense contractors at the White House on Friday to discuss accelerating weapons production, as the Pentagon works to replenish supplies drawn down by US strikes on Iran and other recent military operations, sources said.
Companies including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and parent RTX, along with key suppliers, have been invited to attend the meeting.