I - On Defense Podcast

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 chief led calls for a halt to attacks by either side and a return to negotiations to prevent the conflict from spreading further.
3. China, Russia and North Korea condemned the news that Iran’s notorious strongman Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed an Israeli airstrike, as did Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
4. As outlined in its constitution, Iran on Sunday formed a council to assume leadership duties and govern the country, while the process to select a new Supreme Leader begins.
The council is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary, and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.
5. Israeli and American authorities spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sharing information that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a surprise daylight attack, according to an Israeli military official and a person familiar with the operation.
6. US President Donald Trump threatened early Sunday morning to hit Iran with unprecedented force after Tehran warned it would step up attacks in retaliation for the killing of its supreme leader and fired successive volleys of rockets at Israel for a second consecutive day Sunday.
7. Israeli Air Force fighter jets have dropped over 2,000 bombs in strikes against hundreds of Iranian regime targets and military sites since the start of the conflict with the Islamic Republic on Saturday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.
The amount of munitions dropped on targets in Iran over the first 30 hours of the conflict was around half of what the IAF said it used over the entire course of the 12-day war in June 2025.
8. The warhead of an Iranian missile hit a site just several dozen meters from the Old City of Jerusalem, and just several hundred meters from the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, during the course of Saturday, police announced on Sunday.
9. Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group claims responsibility for firing rockets at northern Israel tonight for the first time since the November 2024 Israel-Lebanon ceasefire.
10. Lebanese and Arabic news outlets report Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, after several rockets were fired at northern Israel earlier tonight.
Lebanese security sources tell Reuters that at least one target in Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit in the strikes.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
11. US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would “be talking” with Iran’s leaders at their request, even as he continued to call on “Iranian patriots” to seize the moment created by the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei the previous day and topple the regime.
12. Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, is seeking to return to the negotiating table with the United States, less than two days after the start of a coordinated assault on Iran by the US and Israel, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing US and Arab officials familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Larijani reached out to the US through Omani mediators to see about resuming negotiations.

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 dispute and averting new US strikes, said mediator Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi.
3. At least nine American refueling tankers arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport overnight as part of the United States’s massive buildup of military forces in the Middle East, according to footage and analysts monitoring open-source flight tracking data.
This week, several American refuelers and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport, and 11 F-22 stealth fighter jets — along with accompanying logistical support planes and aircrews — landed at Ovda Airbase in southern Israel.
There are now at least 14 US refuelers deployed at Ben Gurion Airport.
4. Iran has not allowed the United Nations nuclear agency access to its nuclear facilities bombed by Iran and the United States during a 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the watchdog circulated to member states and seen Friday by The Associated Press.
5. The US State Department on Friday authorized non-emergency personnel and the family members of those stationed in Israel to leave the country due to “safety risks,” with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee reportedly telling embassy staff that if they want to leave Israel, they “should do so TODAY.”
6. Britain, France, Germany and Poland on Friday warned against non-vital travel to Israel and the West Bank, joining multiple countries, including the US and China, that have issued warnings against travel to the region amid soaring tensions with Iran.
7. Ukraine has repatriated the bodies of 1,000 fallen soldiers, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported on Feb. 26.
The exchange comes as talks between Ukraine and the U.S. continue in Geneva, Switzerland, with preparations underway for a new round of trilateral negotiations with Russia that Washington hopes to broker in the coming weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's adviser, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Russia, in turn, received the bodies of 35 fallen Russian soldiers, Russian state-run media outlet RIA Novosti reported.
8. A drone suspected to be of Russian origin was intercepted by the Swedish Navy some 13 kilometers from France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier anchored in the port of Malmö, according to Sweden’s chief of defense.

For review:
1. The United States sees evidence that Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear program after US-led strikes against Iranian nuclear sites in June, US Vice President JD Vance says.
2. US Secretary of State Rubio warns that Iran must negotiate on its missile program, a day after US President Donald Trump alleged Tehran was working on rockets that could hit the United States.
3. Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Geneva ahead of a third round of crucial negotiations with the US, as American envoy Steve Witkoff demanded that any deal over Tehran’s nuclear program remain in effect indefinitely.
4. The Australian government has told dependents of its diplomats in Israel and Lebanon to leave the two Middle East countries, citing a deteriorating security situation in the region, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
5. In a clear message to the region emphasizing the strength of their alliance, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Wednesday to work in lockstep to confront Islamist terrorism, with the Indian leader telling the Knesset in a historic address that his nation stands “firmly” with the Jewish state.
6. A Hezbollah official said Wednesday that the Lebanese terror group will not intervene militarily in the event of “limited” US strikes on its backer Iran, but will consider any attack against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a “red line.”
7. Israel sent an indirect message to Lebanon that it would strike the country hard, targeting civilian infrastructure, including the airport, in the event that Hezbollah gets involved in any US-Iran war, two senior Lebanese officials said Tuesday.
8. Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov is scheduled to meet with US Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Geneva on Feb. 26.
9. Ukraine supplementing (replacing) understrength frontline ground units with unmanned systems.

For review:
1. The next round of talks between the United States and Iran will be Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s foreign minister said.
2. American refueler and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Monday, amid a massive US buildup of military forces ahead of a potential attack on Iran.
There was no comment from Israeli authorities regarding the American military deployment at Israel’s main civilian airport.
3. Bulgaria’s Sofia International Airport briefly suspended civilian air operations twice over the weekend while a fleet of American military aircraft staged at the facility, fueling speculation that Washington is positioning forces ahead of a potential strike on Iran.
4. US President Donald Trump hits back amid a series of reports that his top general has been warning him against the consequences of a prolonged military campaign against Iran.
 5. Another round of talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine could be held at end of this week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff told Ukrainian media on Monday.
"I think at the end of the week, this week," Kyrylo Budanov told reporters when asked about the next round of talks.
6. The Air Force today announced a new agreement with Northrop Grumman to “ramp” production of the in-development B-21 Raider, using $4.5 billion in reconciliation funding to help deliver the bomber by 2027.
7. The US Army briefly published and then removed new official images of its Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), offering rare updated views of the system as it nears operational fielding.
8. The US Marine Corps has confirmed it will not field the Sig Sauer M7 assault rifle, steering away from a potential adoption in partnership with the US Army.
This decision leaves the service operating its M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) due to its proven effectiveness in amphibious deployments.