I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday awarded Boeing a sole-source contract for newvGBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs , to replace the munitions used in last June’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
2. Iran launched live-fire naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
The drill, called "Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz," was led by the naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) under the supervision of IRGC Commander in Chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour.
3.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had told U.S. President Donald Trump to make four key demands of Iran in any deal to avert military strikes against the Islamic regime in Tehran.
- All enriched uranium must leave Iran.
- Iran to have no enrichment capability.
- Limits on the range of Iranian ballistic missiles (Range of 300km and under).
- Dismantle support/infrastructure for Iranian militia proxies in the Region.
4. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation left for the Swiss city after the first round of indirect talks took place in Oman last week. Oman will mediate the talks in Geneva, the IRNA state-run news agency reported on its Telegram channel.
Mr. Araghchi is also expected to meet with his Swiss and Omani counterparts, as well as the director general of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
5. A Republican senator seen as close to US President Donald Trump suggested Monday that an American decision on potential military action against Iran was “weeks, not months” away and opined that it would be a “strategic victory” for the Islamic Republic if its supreme leader isn’t toppled amid the current standoff.
6. Lebanon’s government says its army will have a four-month extendable period to implement phase two of the military’s plan to disarm Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
Phase two covers an area north of the Litani river.
7. The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday evening said that it carried out an airstrike targeting members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in eastern Lebanon, close to the Syrian border.
8. A Ukrainian delegation was heading to Geneva on Monday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks with Russian officials, 
There was no anticipation of any significant progress on ending the war at the Tuesday-Wednesday meeting in Switzerland as both sides appear to be sticking to their negotiating positions on key issues.
9. US Secretary of State Rubio sharply criticized the UN for having “virtually no role” in resolving conflicts, and called for global institutions to be reformed.
“The United Nations still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world,” he told the Munich conference.
“But we cannot ignore that, today, on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role,” he said.
10. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has announced his country is in talks with the United States to buy an additional four F-16 fighter jets on top of the 14 copies already ordered.
11. Estonia’s arms procurement agency has signed a contract with France and KNDS for the acquisition of 12 additional Caesar self-propelled howitzers.
The newly ordered systems are scheduled for delivery later this year.
12. The Pentagon, along with the Department of Energy, on Sunday airlifted a small nuclear reactor, the first such transportation as the Trump administration looks to quickly deploy nuclear power across the U.S.
The Ward 250 is a 5 megawatt nuclear reactor that could potentially power roughly 5,000 homes, according to the Pentagon.

For review:
1. Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), its escorts and embarked Carrier Air Wing 8 have been tasked from their current position in the Caribbean to the Middle East to support a U.S. naval buildup in the region.
2. Asked Friday about potential regime change in Iran, US President Donald Trump said, “it seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” as he confirmed sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East “in case we don’t make a deal” with the Islamic Republic.
3. US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to intensify the “maximum pressure policy” in order to force Iran to give up its nuclear program, including clamping down on the sale of Tehran’s oil to China, according to a Saturday report citing two US officials.
4. The US military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two US officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries.
5. The Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov said at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that the Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with governing Gaza in place of Hamas cannot enter the Strip if violations of the ceasefire continue.
6. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to represent Israel at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington, DC next Thursday.
7. The leader of an anti-Hamas militia based in IDF-controlled areas of the southern Gaza Strip said recently that it is working on demolishing the terror group’s tunnels, a confirmation that further shows Israel’s support for the armed gang.
8. A wave of Israeli airstrikes in several areas of southern Lebanon this evening targeted Hezbollah weapon depots and rocket launchers, the military says.
9. The governments of Russia and Ukraine confirmed Friday that they would participate in a third round of U.S.-mediated peace talks next week, on Feb. 17 and 18 in Geneva. 
10. U.S. Secretary of State Rubio offered a reassuring message to America’s allies on Saturday, striking a less aggressive but still firm tone about the administration’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its priorities.
11. Co-development of the French-German-Spanish Next-Generation Fighter (NGF) is almost certainly headed for collapse, with negotiations between Airbus and Dassault halted on the next phase of the project amid a long-running industrial dispute over leadership and workshare, an industry source said today. 
12. As part of discussions between Belgium and US giant Lockheed Martin for a potential deal covering 11 additional F-35A fifth-generation fighter jets, Brussels is pushing hard for hefty domestic industrial returns, according to the country’s defense minister.

For review:
1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that US President Donald Trump believes the Iranians could be forced to accept “a good deal,” though the premier clarified that he is skeptical of the possibility.
2. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday derided a report by the Israel Hayom newspaper that the Islamic Republic had secretly executed thousands of people who participated in protests after telling Washington it would not do so.
3. An Iranian state-run TV channel on Thursday broadcast a hit list of seven Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appearing to threaten their assassination.
4. Wall Street Journal Report: President Trump Orders Second Carrier Strike Group to Prepare for Deployment.
“The order to deploy could be issued in a matter of hours,” the WSJ posited, citing anonymous officials. However, the order hasn’t been given and plans can change, it added.
5. Syrian government forces have taken control of a base in the east of the country that was run for years by U.S. troops as part of the war against the Islamic State group, the Syrian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
The al-Tanf base sits on a strategic location close to the borders with Jordan and Iraq. 
In a statement, the Syrian Defense Ministry said the handover of the base took place in coordination with the U.S. military and Syrian forces are now “securing the base and its perimeters.”
6. Ukraine's partners pledged nearly $38 billion in new military aid at the 33rd meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in the Ramstein format on Feb. 12, Ukraine Defense Minister Fedorov said.
He added that most of the funding will go toward strengthening Ukraine's air defense systems and expanding its drone capabilities.
7. Russia may have lost about twice as many soldiers in Ukraine in December 2025 as the Soviet Union lost during the Soviet-Afghan War, a former British intelligence chief Sir Richard Moore (MI6) said on Feb. 10.
8. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 11 that Ukraine has accepted the U.S. invitation to hold a new round of peace talks next week.
"The American side has proposed a meeting in America, in Miami, next week. And we immediately confirmed it," President Zelenskyy said.
President Zelenskyy initially told Bloomberg that the negotiations would be hosted by the U.S. and will occur on Feb. 17 and Feb. 18. He later said there was a chance the meeting could be held in Abu Dhabi, and that Ukraine was willing to attend talks in any location.
The talks, however, depend on Russia's agreement to participate, something that Ukraine and the U.S. have not yet received.

For review:
1. On the eve of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump said that the Israeli premier “wants a deal” with Iran, and that the current talks on Tehran’s nuclear program show promise.
2. Entrances to Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Site Purposely Buried in Preparation of US/Israeli Attack.
3. IDF Preparing for Gaza Offensive to Disarm Hamas.
Hinting at the military’s offensive plans, Defense Minister Israel Katz this month said that Israel was "determined to disarm Hamas, threatening to “dismantle” the terror group if it doesn’t agree to lay down its arms.
4. Indonesia is preparing for the potential deployment of 5,000 to 8,000 troops to Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, the country’s army chief of staff, Maruli Simanjuntak, said Monday following a security meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta.
5. The Israel Defense Forces captured a “senior” member of the al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya terror organization during an overnight raid in southern Lebanon, and separately killed two Hezbollah operatives, the military said Monday.
According to the IDF, the al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya operative was nabbed late Sunday from a building in the Mount Dov area near the border by a special forces unit operating under the 210th “Bashan” Regional Division. 
6. Russia cannot launch an attack on NATO this year or next but is planning to increase its forces significantly along the alliance’s eastern flank, depending on the outcome of the war in Ukraine, a senior European intelligence official said.
7. NATO today announced a command restructuring plan that will see the US giving up leadership of two allied operational-level commands to European senior officers.
The US will hand over charge of Joint Force Command Norfolk to the United Kingdom and relinquish leadership of Joint Force Command Naples to Italy, a statement from the alliance said. The statement also noted that Joint Force Command Brunssum will now be led by Germany and Poland on a rotational format.

For review:
1. Iran: Dilution of Enriched Uranium for Sanctions Relief.
2. Israeli PM Netanyahu to Visit Washington D.C. on Wednesday. 
3. Ukraine and Sweden are discussing the prospect of arming Kyiv with Europe’s top air-to-air missile- the Meteor.
4. Ukraine and France took a step toward joint arms production on Feb. 9, as Ukrainian Defense Minister Fedorov and his French counterpart Catherine Vautrin signed a letter of intent in Kyiv, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced.
During the meeting, the ministers discussed accelerating the delivery of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets, as well as a record shipment of Hammer air-to-ground bombs. 
Ukraine and France addressed the supply of long-range weapons, including SCALP missiles. 
5. US Warship (USS Cincinnati) Visits Cambodian Port.
6. Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense has reportedly signed a $250-million contract with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to locally produce the Spike Firefly loitering munition.
7. Rafael Systems Global Sustainment (RSGS) announced today it was selected for Phase I of the Army’s second Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 interceptor program, joining the pack with Lockheed Martin and the Boeing-Anduril team.