I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. Commander of the United States Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper is expected to arrive in Israel on Saturday for meetings with senior officials.
2. Air France and Dutch airline KLM have canceled flights to Israel, Dubai and Saudi Arabia until at least Sunday, citing “security tensions in the region” amid concern of renewed conflict with Iran.
3. Iran’s foreign minister launched a furious tirade on Friday against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the latter commented in Davos that the deadly crackdown on protests in the Islamic Republic showed that if authorities “kill enough people,” they stay in power.
4. US - Russia - Ukraine Tri-Lateral Talks in Abu Dhabi.
5. Latvia’s government has approved the planned purchase of Archer 155 mm self-propelled howitzers for the country’s armed forces.
6. Pentagon leadership has made “no decision” yet about a potential reorganization that would affect the future of US Africa Command.
In December The Washington Post reported that the Defense Department was weighing a significant reorganization of the combatant commands that could see AFRICOM subsumed with US Central Command and US European Command under a new US International Command. 
7. The Pentagon’s unclassified version of the National Defense Strategy places the homeland as the department’s number one priority above the Indo-Pacific.
The top four priorities for the Pentagon, as ordered by the NDS, are: Defend the US homeland; Deter China in the Indo-Pacific “through strength, not confrontation”; Increase burden-sharing with US allies and partners; & “Supercharge” the US Defense industrial base
8. Armor Not Dead: The Army is rolling out four prototypes of the M1E3 to a platoon this summer — five years earlier than the service initially planned, the Army Chief of Staff said.

For review:
1. Eight prominent Muslim countries jointly announced their decisions to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on Wednesday
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates will each appoint a representative to sit on the panel of world leaders, their foreign ministers announced in a joint statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted US President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, the premier’s office announced Wednesday.
2. A meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to take place on Thursday with “land deals” over Ukraine on the table, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told CNBC.
3. President Trump: "Concept of a Deal" on Greenland; No Tariffs.
4. Germany will finance the delivery of five Lynx KF41 infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine under a contract signed in December 2025, with the first systems expected to arrive in the coming weeks, Rheinmetall announced Monday.
5. Trophy active protection systems will be integrated on the Leopard 2 A8 main battle tanks of Lithuania, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Croatia under a €300 million ($351 million) deal, manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced on Monday.
6. The British Army’s newly upgraded Challenger 3 Main Battle Tank has undergone and completed crewed live firing, ticking off a key milestone for the £800 million ($1.08 billion) program, expected to eventually deliver 148 vehicles into service.
7. House and Senate appropriators have agreed on an $838.7 billion defense topline for fiscal 2026 in a bipartisan deal that would boost defense funds by $8.4 billion over the Pentagon’s request.

For review:
1. The Syrian government and the Kurdish SDF announced a new four-day truce after a previous ceasefire between government forces broke down. The two sides have been clashing for two weeks, amid a breakdown in negotiations over the implementation of a deal to merge their forces together.
2. US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “we think we know” where the body of the final hostage, slain Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is being held in the Gaza Strip
MSG Gvili, a member of the Yasam police unit, was killed battling terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza, where it is still being held.
3. Several European countries are considering whether to stop sending personnel to a US military-led coordination center for Gaza, saying it has failed to increase aid flows to the war-shattered enclave or achieve political change, diplomats said.
The Civil-Military Coordination Center was established in southern Israel in October under US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza. It was tasked with monitoring the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, facilitating the entry of aid, and developing postwar policies for the Palestinian territory.
4. US Plans Signing Ceremony for Board of Peace in Davos.
5. Israel on Tuesday began demolishing the East Jerusalem headquarters of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, with Israeli forces entering the compound with bulldozers and other demolition equipment in the early morning and destroying buildings in what UNRWA called an “unprecedented attack.”
6. Iran’s foreign minister hit out at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos late Monday for canceling his appearance over a brutal crackdown on recent protests and said the decision was based on “lies and political pressure from Israel.” 
7. Wall Street Journal Report: US President Donald Trump is continuing to push his aides to devise what he calls “decisive” military options against Iran, days after he called off strikes against the Islamic Republic.

For review:
1. A U.S. military strike in northwest Syria resulted in the death of a leader affiliated with Al-Qaeda who was linked to the ISIS attack that resulted in the death of two U.S. Army soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter, the U.S. Central Command announced Saturday.
2. President Trump's Board of Peace Invitations Sent: 60 Countries Invited; France Says No.
3. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday that Turkish and Qatari forces would not set foot in Gaza, days after the White House announced that officials from the countries would sit on a key committee set to oversee the Strip’s postwar management.
4. U.S. President Donald Trump is also attending in person for the first time since he addressed the forum during his first term in 2020. Alongside President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are set to attend in person.
5. Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov said on Sunday that talks with U.S. officials would continue at the World Economic Forum opening this week in the Swiss resort of Davos.
6. - U.S. President Donald Trump has linked his drive to control Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought "purely of Peace" as the row over the island threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe.
The President declined to tell NBC News in an interview whether he would use force to seize Greenland. He did reiterate his threat to hit European nations with tariffs if a deal is not reached.
7. A pair of U.S. naval vessels carried out Washington’s first reported Taiwan Strait transit of 2026, according to Chinese and U.S. officials.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command claimed that Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113 ) and Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) transited the strategic strait between Friday and Saturday.
8. The U.S. and Japan have pledged to further expand joint training across Japan’s southwest region, including the first island chain, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Thursday.
In a 50-minute meeting held this week in Washington D.C., the two defense leaders agreed to prioritize several initiatives meant to strengthen the response capabilities of the U.S.-Japan Alliance.

For review:
1. US Announces (Gaza) Board of Peace Executive Committee; Includes Turkey & Qatar.
2. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists” and blamed US President Donald Trump for “casualties” after the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on a protest wave against the country’s clerical authorities.
3. US President Donald Trump, for the first time, appeared to call on Saturday for the end of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rule in Iran.
“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” the President told Politico.
4. Mossad director David Barnea was reported to arrive Friday in the US for consultations on Iran’s deadly crackdown on protests and a potential American military response.
5. Ukraine Delegation Arrives in US to Discuss Peace Agreement. 
Ukrainian negotiators will meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
6. Troops from several European countries continued to arrive in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support for Denmark as talks among representatives of Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. highlighted “fundamental disagreement” over the future of the Arctic island.
7. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday reaffirmed that "no intimidation or threat" could influence them following US President Donald Trump's announcement to impose new tariffs on eight European countries over the Greenland dispute.
8. US Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle: US defense spending needs to be rebaselined to at least 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product to enable the Navy to meet current readiness demands and to expand its fleet of warships to contend with future threats.
9. The first Trump-class Battleship could cost up to about $21 billion if ordered today, with the price inching toward $22 billion if ordered in 2030, according to an estimate put forward by the Congressional Budget Office.