I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. US & Iran have agreed to halt attacks on each other and to meet again on Tuesday in Doha to discuss the issues of the Strait of Hormuz.
2. The Israel-Lebanon framework agreement, signed last week, explicitly preserves the Israel Defense Force’s full freedom to act against threats in the southern Lebanon security zone, an official familiar with its contents told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
3. Hezbollah’s leader on Saturday pilloried the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement signed in Washington as “null and void” and a surrender of Lebanon’s sovereignty, with the terror group’s top ally in Beirut’s parliament going as far as calling it an “incitement to civil war.”
4. A top commander in Hamas’s naval police and a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught were among four terrorists killed in recent strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday.
5. Turkey Offers to Host Russia - Ukraine Peace Talks.
6. The German Navy is moving two ships to the Red Sea in preparation for a possible mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s defense minister confirmed on Thursday.
7. During a meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo, Canada’s defense minister has said that Ottawa is “interested in learning more about” the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) next-generation fighter.
The GCAP is a multinational effort between Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom that envisions a sixth-generation fighter jet as well as collaborative combat drones and high-tech data sharing.
8. Japan’s government has confirmed it will rename its air force to reflect a broadened mission set to include outer space.
The upper house of Japan’s parliament approved a bill today to rename the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) to the Japan Aerospace Self-Defense Force.
9. North Korea commissioned its largest warship to date, the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon (51), in a ceremony Tuesday in the port city Nampho.
Choe Hyon was domestically made, and was armed with indigenous weapons systems.

For review:
1. US Central Command (CENTCOM) says its forces conducted strikes against Iran earlier this evening in response to an attack on a commercial ship that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
2. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it attacked US sites in the Gulf region in retaliation to American strikes in Iran, according to state television.
3. The United States is considering moving Middle East military installations westward, including to Israel, to reduce their exposure to Iran’s missiles and drones.
4. Israel, Lebanon and the US reached an agreement Friday that will see the Israel Defense Forces begin to withdraw from small parts of southern Lebanon.
5. Officers from the Moroccan military, whose deployment was announced in February, have arrived in Israel to join a nascent international force for Gaza, US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said Tuesday.
An official from the board separately told AFP on condition of anonymity that the contingent arrived on June 18 at the headquarters of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in southern Israel.
6. The Kremlin said Wednesday that contacts between Moscow and Washington on the Ukraine war will resume when the American envoys become available amid their occupation with other issues.

For review:
1.  The U.S. government on Tuesday hit Cuban state companies with new sanctions.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the sanctions target five Cuban entities, including three linked to Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate operated by Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. 
2. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war. 
3. Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Wednesday that the IDF will not withdraw from its southern Lebanon security zone, “even if there is an American demand,” while adding there was no such demand at this time. 
4. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel needs to be “free” from military dependence on the United States and develop its own weapons-production capabilities, arguing that this is needed to support the ongoing fight with Iran and its terror proxies. 
5.  A senior Islamic State leader was killed by an airstrike last week, Central Command announced on Wednesday,. 
Ali Husayn al-Ulaywi was killed in a precision airstrike on June 19.
6.  U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Group of Seven summit in France that he would consider letting Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptor missiles.
7.  The Missile Defense Agency today awarded Lockheed Martin a $35 billion undefined contract action (UCA) to quadruple production of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors over a seven-year period, the company and the Defense Department announced.

For review:
1. The United States and Iran began talks in Switzerland on Sunday after signing a preliminary agreement to end their war.
American and Iranian representatives gathered alongside delegations from mediators Pakistan and Qatar at the luxury Swiss resort of Burgenstock.
2. Iran and the United States agree on a roadmap toward reaching a final deal to end the war within 60 days, mediators Pakistan and Qatar say in a joint statement on Monday.
3. Iran and the United States agree to set up a “de-confliction cell” with Lebanon to stop military operations there, Pakistan and Qatar, which are mediating the US-Iran negotiations in Switzerland, say in a joint statement.
4. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to keep Israeli troops in the south Lebanon security zone “for as long as necessary” to protect northern Israel from Hezbollah.
5. IDF Captures Hezbollah Subterranean Drone Base / Factory in S. Lebanon. 
6. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday ruled out intervening militarily in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, after US President Donald Trump again suggested Damascus could get involved.
7. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given Belarus a one-week ultimatum to remove relay equipment on its territory that he says is helping Russia attack Ukraine, warning that Kyiv will otherwise intervene itself to halt the transmissions.
8. The U.S. Department of Defense is open to Poland’s offer to host a permanent U.S. military presence in Poland, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Thursday after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Brussels.
9. The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) inked a pair of conditional loans totaling $1.2 billion this week within the rare earth elements sector, according to department announcements.

For review:
1. A B-52 on a routine test mission crashed shortly after takeoff Monday (15 June)  in Southern California, killing all eight crew members on board.
2.  US Army aims to release proposal requests for its heavy variant of the ISV this fall, a senior service official told lawmakers, adding that the Army is attempting to field the capability as quickly as possible. The Army is seeking vehicles that can provide  60 kW of continuous high-voltage DC power, 15 kW of 28V DC power and 4.8 kW of 120V AC power. 
3. After eight years as US Indo-Pacific Command, the Pentagon has announced it is restoring the original name to simply Pacific Command (PACOM).
4. KNDS, the French-German maker of the Leopard tank and the Caesar truck-mounted gun, pitched a new howitzer with a barrel longer than any NATO production artillery, which the company said gives the weapon a range of up to 60 kilometers (37 miles) with standard high-explosive shells.
The 155mm howitzer, named Loras for long-range artillery system, is equipped with a 58 caliber gun tube, about 12% longer than the 52 caliber barrels that equip most recent European cannons.
5. President Trump on Friday unveiled the Boeing 747-8 that will serve as the new Air Force One, that the U.S. accepted as a gift from the Qatari government last year.
6. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is traveling to Switzerland for the first round of talks with Iran on a potential nuclear deal, Axios reports, citing a US official.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is already in Switzerland, it adds.
7. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire on Friday afternoon, a US official said, after another flare-up in southern Lebanon that saw four Israeli soldiers and dozens of Lebanese casualties.
8. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has set up secretive new cells in Iraq to carry out attacks on Gulf countries that host American forces, bypassing established militia networks to avoid detection, eight Iraqi sources told Reuters.