I - On Defense Podcast

For review: 1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and take immediate retirement, sources familiar with the decision told CBS News.  2. The U.S. military is poised to double its A-10 presence in the Middle East, as the  close air support plane plays a key role in combating Iranian boats and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq as part of Operation...

For review: 1. The US Central Command confirms that CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper visited Israel this week and met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. 2. The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush deployed Tuesday and is slated to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two U.S. officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 Sailors. 3. US President Donald...

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 Te...

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...

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 m...

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...

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. Tru...

For review: 1. The United States struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility on Saturday, several media reports claimed,  Iranian media said US-Israeli forces attacked the Shahid Ahmadi-Roshan Natanz enrichment complex on Saturday morning. Technical experts found that no radioactive leaks had occurred, and nearby residents were not at risk. 2. US President Donald Trump on Friday ruled out a c...

For review: 1. The Israeli Air Force struck Iranian gas infrastructure in the country’s south on Wednesday. The strikes targeted Iran’s massive offshore South Pars natural gas field. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes on the gas facility, but an Israeli official confirmed the strike was carried out by the IAF. 2. US President Donald Trump said early Thursday that he wo...

For review: 1. Top Iranian official Ali Larijani was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight Monday-Tuesday, Israel’s military and top leaders announced on Tuesday. The Israel Defense Forces said that the commander of Iran’s oppressive Basij force had been killed in a separate overnight strike as well. 2. US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US would not be fighting Iran for “much long...

For review: 1. A missile strike on a house in Baghdad on Tuesday killed two people, with initial reports suggesting they are “Iranian advisers” to Tehran-backed groups, a security official tells AFP. 2. Rockets and at least five drones were launched at the US embassy in Baghdad early Tuesday from areas around the city, Iraqi security sources say, describing the attack as the most intense since the...

For review: 1. On Sunday, citing “a senior source close to the new Iranian leader,” Kuwait’s Al-Jarida news outlet reported that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had been smuggled out of Iran in a secretive Russian operation on Thursday to receive medical treatment in Moscow for injuries sustained in the same airstrikes that killed his father and wife on the first day of the ongoing US-Israeli offe...

For review: 1. US President Donald Trump’s administration has rebuffed efforts by Middle Eastern allies to start diplomatic negotiations aimed at ending the Iran war. Iran, for its part, has rejected talk of a ceasefire until US and Israeli strikes end, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters,  2. US President Donald Trump says that the United States may carry out more strikes on Iran’s Kharg Isla...

For review: 1. Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “wounded and likely disfigured,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a briefing Friday. 2. US President Donald Trump announces that American forces “totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island. 3. Five US Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in...

For review: 1.Two oil tankers were struck in the Gulf, killing one person, as Iran continued its attacks on targets across the region and the IDF reported hitting a “critical” nuclear site near Tehran, amid ongoing US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic. 2. Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public, ostensibly vowed on Thursday to avenge the deaths since the s...

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 P...

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 e...

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 decisio...

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...

Operation Epic Fury & Roaring Lion for review: 1. Concerning Iran's New Supreme Leader: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Wednesday that Israel would target whoever leads the Islamic Republic. “ Any leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue leading the plan to destroy Israel, threaten the US and the free world and the countries of the region, and oppress the Iran...

Operation Epic Fury / Roaring Lion for review: 1. France plans to send anti-missile and anti-drone systems to Cyprus after a British air base on the island was attacked by drones, the semi-official Cyprus News Agency (CNA) said on Tuesday. 2. US President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to sever all trade with Spain after it refused to let US planes use its bases to attack Iran, while also lashing...

Operation Epic Fury & Roaring Lion update for review: 1. US CJCS: “Our military objectives are clear,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters. “Our mission is to protect and defend ourselves, and together with our regional partners, prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders and be ready for follow on actions as appropriate.” 2. Three US...

For review: Operation Epic Fury / Roaring Lion Continues. 1. Three American soldiers have been killed, and five have been seriously wounded in the ongoing conflict with Iran, the US Central Command said Sunday, announcing the first US casualties in the conflict. 2. The United States and Israel clashed with Iran at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday as the United Nations ch...

For review: US & Israel Strike Iran. US: Operation Epic Fury Israel: Operation Roaring Lion 1. US & Israel Strike Iran; Iran's Supreme Leader Dead; IRGC Commander Dead. 2. Iran Hits Back at Israel and Six Arab Regional Neighbors. 3. World Reaction

For review: 1. US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was “not happy” with Iran’s conduct in nuclear negotiations after the sides held a third round of talks in Geneva but that he hadn’t made a decision on whether to authorize a military strike on the Islamic Republic. 2. The United States and Iran made significant progress in talks on Thursday aimed at resolving a longstanding nuclear disp...