I - On Defense Podcast

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.

For review:
1. Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist ​Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country's socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions.
The ‌measures, if implemented as passed, would represent the single largest change to Cuba's socialist model since former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and a major shift towards a market economy.
2. President Trump on Wednesday signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran ending the war between the two countries.
3. Iran will invite the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency to inspect its nuclear sites and begin work on identifying and uncovering the locations of Tehran’s enriched material, US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff tells US lawmakers in a private briefing.
4. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman warned Thursday that a continued IDF presence in southern Lebanon would mean the “annulment” of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the United States, as Israel doubled down on its plans to keep troops in the area amid its ongoing conflict with the Hezbollah terror group.
5. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO Thursday the Pentagon will review its force presence in Europe within six months.
“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” Hegseth told a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
6. USAF CCA Update.

For review:
1. Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opened Somaliland’s embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the eighth top-level diplomatic mission in the capital.
The United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Fiji also have embassies in Jerusalem, while other countries — including Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia — have embassy branches in Jerusalem.
2. The Hamas terror group carried out its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel partly in order to thwart the Jewish state’s rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, according to seized documents.
3. US & Iran MOU (Reaction/Analysis).