I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. Two attacks on Riyadh airport killed three Saudi nationals on Thursday, authorities said Friday, as Yemen’s Houthis stepped up missile strikes on the kingdom and tried to shut down its airspace
The Iran-backed Yemeni rebels had said Thursday that they struck King Khalid International Airport with two cruise missiles.
2. US President Donald Trump has had the Pentagon draw up new plans for three days of intensive strikes on Iranian military and energy sites, focusing on its missile and drone arsenals, NYT reported on Thursday.
3. US Vice President JD Vance said in an exclusive interview with Reuters that Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its nuclear enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the countries’ seven-month war, even as Washington was unsure how Tehran makes decisions in negotiations.
4. Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh has informed France that a Palestinian legislative election planned for November 28 will be postponed, possibly until September 2027, because of worsening conditions throughout the Palestinian territories, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
5. President Trump decided to make a diesel fuel deal with Russia after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignored half a dozen U.S. requests to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, a U.S. official with direct knowledge told Axios.
6. Fielding of the M8 carbine, which appears set to replace Sig Sauer’s M7 as the Army’s standard rifle less than three years after the M7’s initial fielding began, will begin in December with some units at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, company executives confirmed to Military Times Monday.
7. The Pentagon inked a five-year contract with Raytheon for the steady production of ballistic missile interceptors that use force to destroy targets, rather than explosives.
The $6.3 billion contract, which provides two additional option years, will see Raytheon provide the Defense Department with a continuous supply of Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors manufactured primarily in Tucson, Arizona and Huntsville, Alabama.
8. A new U.S. Army multi-domain task force was activated this week with a ceremony at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The 4th Multi-Domain Task Force will focus on synchronizing long-range precision fires in the Indo-Pacific region “to deny, disrupt and disaggregate adversary capabilities” and create advantages for other units in the joint force, the Army said in a release.

For review:
1. The Saudi-led coalition, pushing to retake strategic territory seized by the Houthis, said it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile north of the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The escalation came after Yemeni government forces, with Saudi-led coalition air support, launched a lightning counteroffensive this week to capture the Red Sea coast around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait shipping route and the city of Mokha.
2. New satellite images show “significant renewed activity” at the underground Minzadehei nuclear facility near Tehran, which the IDF bombed during the war with Iran this year, according to a report published Tuesday by the Institute for Science and International Security.
3. Iran has “lost complete control” of the Strait of Hormuz, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, adding that Tehran’s economy was “in total and complete freefall.”
4. Lithuania is ready to pay the cost to set up a permanent U.S. military base if Washington should agree to establish one there, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said on Tuesday.
The US has kept an armored battalion of almost 1,000 troops there since 2019, in overlapping rotations, meaning the troops arrive and leave every few months.
5. France test-fired an upgraded version of its M51 strategic ballistic missile from a submarine for the first time on Tuesday, a capability demonstration that President Emmanuel Macron called “very important” for the country’s strategic credibility and which he said would be monitored by allies and adversaries alike.
6. Anduril is establishing a new shipyard to manufacture parts for Virginia-class Submarines in Baltimore County, Md., the company and the White House announced today.
The new facility, dubbed Arsenal-2, comes with a $6.6 billion investment, including $3.7 billion in private capital and up to $2.9 billion from the Navy. And notably, today’s announcement marks Anduril’s first entry into the supply chain for a major legacy defense program.

For review:
1. The US Air Force has brought home its bombers stationed at a US run military air base in England used to strike Iran following an investigation into a planned terror attack at the RAF Fairford base.
2. The U.S. military is dispatching roughly 9,000 troops aboard a group of ships to the Middle East, a U.S. official said Thursday. It includes the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group.
3. Forces of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen have recaptured several key areas around Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Yemeni officials said Monday.
The officials said forces allied with the internationally recognized government have retaken the crucial town of Dhubab just north of the strait. 
They also captured the towns of Bab and Hadeid.
4. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen say they struck the international airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh, an Aramco refinery and sites across the kingdom’s south.
5. Britain has warned Israel that it could expel 27 Israeli diplomats from the embassy in London if Israel follows through on its decision to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, where 27 British diplomats work, according to an unsourced Ynet report on Monday.
6. The United States is pushing for Ukraine and Russia to hold negotiations at the technical level before the end of the month, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 4.
7. German Chancellor Merz has announced a new round of military aid for Ukraine, valued at approximately €1 billion ($1.1 billion), to include turbojet-powered drone interceptors, standoff weapons and space-based technology.
8. Germany plans to stand up its first dedicated drone regiment next year, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced. Pistorius said ground forces will begin forming the regiment in 2027.

For review:
1. The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Friday the seizure of two ships bound for Cuba that were illegally carrying thousands of gallons of diesel fuel amid the ongoing fuel blockade to the country imposed by President Donald Trump.
2. Senior Trump administration officials met at Camp David on Friday to discuss the war with Iran and escalating conflict between the Iran-backed Houthi militia and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government army.
3. Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, with options being considered including a coastal push to secure the Red Sea shipping route or an assault on multiple fronts, regional and Western officials told Reuters.
4. The first batch of Taiwan’s new-build Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 fighter jets have arrived on the island, the country’s military announced today.
5. The U.S. Army on Tuesday signed agreements with Anduril, Castelion, Lockheed Martin, Mach Industries and RTX to create advanced long-range missile prototypes, Redstone Arsenal announced this week.

For review:
1. The United Arab Emirates on Thursday launched investigations into possible “terrorist activity” aboard flydubai FLT FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after the copilot stabbed the pilot in an apparent attempt to crash the plane full of Israeli passengers.
2. A Russian strategic bomber crashed Tuesday on a training mission in the country's far east, killing six members of its crew, the Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement that the Tu-95 bomber went down in an unpopulated area in the Amur region, adding that one crewmember survived the crash and was hospitalized with injuries.
3. Iranian officials indicated Wednesday that they have received an official US response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the seven-month war, which US President Donald Trump had publicly rejected just days earlier.
The officials did not say what the response contained, nor whether it was a rejection or not.
4. British police have arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of plotting a terror attack following a security incident at a US-run military airbase in England that was used to carry out strikes on Iran, police said Thursday.
5. Finland celebrated the recent delivery of its first pair of F-35 fifth generation fighter jets today at a special ceremony hosted by the Finnish air force’s Lapland Air Wing.
6. RTX’s unit won a multiyear contract worth up to $24.4 billion to produce Standard Missile-6 interceptors for the U.S. Navy, the service said on Thursday.
7.  The U.S. Air Force has ordered four more MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters, the first under full-rate production, Boeing said Thursday, just weeks after the service declared the aircraft ready for its nuclear missile security mission.
8. Secretary of War Speech to Senior Officers at Quantico