Ones Ready

Ops Brief 139: Daily Drop - 31 Mar 2026 - Ground War Incoming? 850 Missiles Fired!

20 min
Mar 31, 202619 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

This Daily Drop episode covers major U.S. military operations in the Middle East, including 82nd Airborne deployments, Navy and Marine force positioning, and over 850 Tomahawk missiles fired in four weeks against Iran. The host discusses operational readiness, equipment challenges, and potential ground war scenarios while providing insider military perspective on DOD public affairs releases.

Insights
  • Force pre-positioning in the Middle East is a negotiation tactic to demonstrate military superiority before potential ground operations, not necessarily an indicator of imminent invasion
  • Military acquisition and modernization programs are significantly behind schedule, exemplified by prototype ICBM silo development still in early stages
  • Precision weapons stockpiles are being depleted at unsustainable rates, mirroring 2016 ISIS campaign constraints that required higher-level intervention to reduce consumption
  • Micro-nuclear reactor deployment could transform military base energy independence and operational sustainability, particularly for remote installations near adversarial borders
  • Combat patch authorizations and force boosting indicate escalation messaging while maintaining plausible deniability about ground invasion intentions
Trends
Accelerated military modernization in Indo-Pacific region with permanent F-35 basing in JapanNuclear weapons modernization program advancement despite significant delays in ICBM silo constructionShift toward energy resilience and micro-nuclear reactor technology for military installationsIncreased precision weapons consumption rates straining production and stockpile managementMulti-service force integration and amphibious readiness group deployments as deterrence strategySpace Force infrastructure development with multi-vendor contracting for training rangesDiplomatic negotiations alongside military buildup as dual-track Iran conflict strategySupply chain vulnerabilities in military equipment theft and black market resale risks
Topics
82nd Airborne Middle East DeploymentOperation Epic Fury Iran CampaignTomahawk Cruise Missile Expenditure RatesICBM Sentinel Modernization ProgramMicro-Nuclear Reactor Military DeploymentF-35 Permanent Basing in JapanMarine Expeditionary Unit PositioningUSS Massachusetts Virginia-Class SubmarineCommand and Control Mobile SystemsMilitary Equipment Theft PreventionSpace Force Training Range DevelopmentRed Sea Shipping Route SecurityPentagon Ground Operations PlanningPrecision Weapons Stockpile ManagementU.S.-Iran Diplomatic Negotiations
Companies
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Quotes
"When you're doing a big muscle movement like this and you want to leverage some power, you're going to pre-position forces, equipment, resources forward because if you need them quick, fast and in a hurry, you don't want to have to wait for them to come back from the states"
HostEarly in episode
"There are plans on quote unquote shelves and binders or whatever you want to call it that we have for a lot of different countries and they have a lot of different plans. So these plans have been around for quite some time"
HostMid-episode
"I hope that this is just sabre-rattling and kind of a threat or a warning that we're not actually going to put troops on the ground because, man, it's going to get so ugly if we do that"
HostOperational section
"The high usage strains precision weapons stockpiles. I can remember back in 2016 once we got approval to strike ISIS targets we were screaming through hellfires and it got to a point where higher ups said we gotta pump the brakes because we can't produce hellfires fast enough"
HostWeapons expenditure discussion
Full Transcript
One's ready! One, two, three! Go! Team! Ready! Exercise! One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! I'm too locked in I'm another run like God I get critics when I hate I'm a certified pop Bust my teeth, that's 24 hours Fack on my name, I'll trust you Coward, independent winner But I count my blessings I don't know about sex Like I learned my lesson Don't test them Let me go put it on record I'm in the top five of the top five network Way back when they didn't believe me This took years, you know I ain't do it recently Tell me where they see me, feel like a deep Ain't nobody better now I got them all feared Ain't nobody better when I'm done and that's peer My point, let your peer Can't rule this interior One shot, year left, I'm gon' take Love my, I made it Hey everybody, welcome back to the One's Ready podcast You're in the team room and this is your daily drop For the 31st of March Brought to you by TastyGains.com If you're looking for high-end creatine gummies That actually have more than what they advertise Which is 3 grams per gummy You want to go over to TastyGains.com They've got everything that you need They've got stuff for women, stuff for kids Stuff for getting your mind right In terms of new tropics Cause you really need to buckle down And focus on the school work or some actual work Or just focus in the gym They also have pre-workout So make sure you check them out TastyGains.com Now, if you're new here What this is is just kind of a Readers digest of things that are going on Within the DOD that are put out By public affairs across the board So, it's garbage in, garbage out If it's pretty bad What they're writing Or like it's just not a very good article Then what I'm gonna give you isn't very good But if it's real good, then cool Great And then I will also provide any kind of Opinion or insider baseball to any of these If I have any A lot of times I don't Alright, starting off with the army Thousands of 82nd Airborne paratroopers Rive in the Middle East Excuse me, they have begun Arriving in the Middle East as part of The ongoing US military build-up This deployment adds significant combat power Amid Operation Epic Fury And it occurs while President Trump Ways further steps in the conflict with Iran Yeah, we kind of talked about this yesterday When you're doing a big muscle movement like this And you want to leverage some power You're going to pre-position Forces, equipment, resources Forward because If you need them quick, fast and in a hurry You don't want to have to wait for them to come back From the, or come from the states And get over So you get ahead of it by Getting everybody in place And then you negotiate just to show That you hold the upper hand Now that's not to say that A ground invasion won't happen because At this point who the hell knows? Actually Now, and I've also seen reports of people Talking about, hey, there's plans for a ground invasion And that kind of stuff Well, maybe But if you guys didn't know There are plans on quote unquote shelves And binders or whatever you want to call it That we have for a lot of different countries And they have a lot of different plans So these plans Have been around for quite some time And they get updated occasionally But we're not pulling stuff out of a playbook And just coming up with it on the fly There are plans for this Now whether they happen or not Or go all the way through We'll find out Next, army approves combat patches for Iran war zone Man, the army loves some patches, don't they? The army authorized combat patches For soldiers deployed to parts of the Middle East And Africa in support of the war with Iran The memo recognizes their contribution to the campaign And that is the first such authorization Tied to Operation Epic Fury No doubt the Air Force Navy will follow suit I mean, that's just same with the space force That they'll probably have their own patches Or ribbons or medals or something like that Next, army looks to add mobile C2 Or command and control to infantry squad vehicles The army is exploring command and control on the move Capabilities for infantry squad vehicles At the request of field units The effort aims to enhance tactical communications During operations A notice was posted on the government contracting site Because they're going out for bed and they're looking for The right company Well, not really the right company They're looking for a company to build this Hopefully the army gets the right company To do it But oftentimes Government contracting falls short Alright, next, Navy USS Tripoli Amphibious readiness group arrives in Sintkamp USS Tripoli, amphibious readiness group Carrying the 31st MEU Or Marine Expeditionary Unit Arriving in the US Central Command waters Approximately 2,500 Marines And sailors join the regional force This deployment bolsters expeditionary capabilities In the theater, and like I told you before The deployment of the Marines was actually already planned And... But they have boosted some of those numbers up, right? So, it's not like all of a sudden We're sending the Marines, like they were always going to be going out there It's just, we bolstered them up a little bit And we'll see how we go I do find it funny that as soon as Marines Deploy Or they're finally on station boost on the ground That Americans are like, oh gosh, finally Like, alright, everything's gonna be okay The Marines have arrived Like there's some incredible force Now don't get me wrong, I love the Marines But, like... Come on, man There's a lot of stuff that's going on A lot of good people out there that are doing some incredible things That aren't Marines Alright, next Navy Commissions Fast Attack Submarine USS Massachusetts The Navy Commissioned its newest nuclear-powered Fast Attack Submarine USS Massachusetts In a ceremony at Boston Harbor The boat joins the fleet As the newest Virginia-class submarine Did you notice how it said Boat and not a ship? So, a boat Is a submarine and a ship Is, like, a destroyer Aircraft carrier, stuff like that My submarine, everybody taught me that And if I forgot that, or if I got that wrong Well, that's on me, not him Alright, next, Marine Corps Marine Corp. Charged with Stealing Javelin Missile Oh boy A Marine Corporal Formerly stationed at Camp Pendleton Is in federal custody, no doubt Accused of stealing a javelin anti-tank missile system And ammunition with intent to resell them on Or resell them in Arizona Court documents detailed the theft from the base In the cases under investigation For some of you active duty folks out there You'll kind of get a kick out of this And also not surprised I mean, people do this All the time with NVGs Weapons And in 99.99% of the time they get caught So I don't know why people tend to think that this is Like an easy thing to get away with I mean, jeez, dude That's crazy, and you're trying to get a javelin anti-tank missile system I mean, what are you doing? You selling that on Facebook Marketplace? I'm joking, but I bet that's exactly where this dude's trying to do And if you go to Facebook Marketplace You could probably type in PVS 31 or PVS 14 or Let's see, what else could you throw in there? There's quite a few, you know, I know that there was this one E9, I'll call him an E9 Not a chief in the Air Force That he had ordered his unit some snow machines, snowmobiles That they were going to use because they had an extreme cold weather kit Requirement So he ordered these things and I guess he ordered quite a few of them With the intent to the extra ones, the excess ones To sell them on the side and pocket that kind of money That happened probably 15 years ago and I know the guy I haven't heard from him in 15 Maybe hell is probably even more than that now Because I don't actually know what happened to him, I think he went to jail But I could be wrong Alright, before we get on to the Air Force You guys know that we have our Operator Training Summit coming up At the beginning of May in Nashville Would love to see you guys out there, slots are filling up You want to get in on this while you can You don't want to miss out You can do that by going to OperatorTrainingSummit.com And registering Alright, on to the Air Force First Permanently based F-35 arrives in Masawa, Japan Masawa Air Base receives its first permanently assigned F-35 fighter This marks the initial permanent F-35 basing in Japan For the Air Force and the arrival enhances Indo-Pacific Air Power posture That way they can finally kind of retire the F-15C Which is like, I know they've been wanting to do Next Air Force breaks ground on prototype Sentinel ICBM silo The Air Force broke ground in Utah on a prototype launch silo For the next generation Sentinel intercontinental I'm a little messed this up That's why I say ICBM Intercontinental ballistic missile The silo is part of the plans for the 450 operational sites Construction advances the nuclear modernization program We are super behind on this, so it's about the time The fact that it's only a prototype is kind of like a WTF Like, why are we not hurrying up on this? Because it is an issue, but I mean There you go, you guys have heard me bitch and moan and complain about Acquisitions in the Air Force and the military in general So this is a perfect example of that Next, the Air Force seeks suppliers for the nuclear micro-reactors Dude, let's freaking go The Air Force issued a request for information On companies capable of designing, licensing, fueling, constructing And deploying micro-nuclear reactors for military installations The effort supports energy resilience goals Responses will inform future acquisitions I know I've talked about this before I'm super excited for this capability I know one of the things that they're going to do Is test it up in Alaska first, which makes sense Because one of the bases, and I won't say which one Because honestly, it's not that I'm trying to Protect the Opset or anything, but I just don't know which one it is But they actually have a train that has to That goes back and forth I think once or twice a day, or maybe it's just continuous To get coal to Or to deliver coal to the plant That keeps the Air Force base Powered with electricity Can you imagine now, if you have a micro-nuclear reactor You don't have to do that anymore It's sustainable, a lot more stable and sustainable than coal Especially when you start talking about how close That base would be to Russia, kind of thing This is super important and super exciting And I can't wait till we get these at all of our military installations But then also at my house I want one of these Just a little guy, you know, the size of a monster can Or something like that I want one of these guys at my house so I can stop paying These high ass electricity bills Alright, next, Space Force Space Force seeks proposal for physical test and training range The United States Space Force released a solicitation For a multi-vendor contract worth up to $981 million to design, develop, integrate And sustain a new physical test and training range The facility will combine ground and space based systems This advances realistic training capabilities I would love to see the kind of plans for this And what they're actually looking for Because, you know, you start hearing about a physical test and training range For the Space Force, you're like, what the hell is that going to look like? So, hmm, it'd be interesting to see what comes out of that Coast Guard, nothing for the Coast Guard Hopefully those guys are starting to get paid now I know that they were impacted by the DHS shutdown Not getting paid just like the TSA guys So, hopefully the Coasties out there are getting paid now Nothing for the Secretary of Defense President of the United States Trump interested in Arab states funding Iran war President Trump expressed interest in having Arab countries Help pay for the cost of the war with Iran White House officials noted that talks with Tehran To end the conflict or progressing This reflects ongoing diplomatic and financial considerations Yeah, we'll see I mean, like at this point, whatever, man We'll just keep adding to that deficit, right? Sorry guys, I am talking through this And I am trying every time not to cough That's why I get quiet occasionally Because I am covering up the mic Alright, for operational stuff Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran The Pentagon is developing plans For potential weeks-long ground operations in Iran As U.S. forces continue to amass in the region This includes detailed preparations for possible troop involvement The Washington Post reported the internal planning I hope that this is just sabre-rattling And kind of a threat or a warning That we're not actually going to put troops on the ground Because, man, it's going to get so ugly if we do that And I just don't want to turn into another 20-year war I know that the bros are out there just going like Fuck, fucking let me loose Let me go do my thing You know, UGY guys, you got yours Let me get mine But, dudes, I get it, man You want to prove your worth, but this is going to get bloody as hell Next, 10 U.S. troops wounded an Iranian strike On Prince Sultan Air Base, or PSAB A dozen U.S. service members were wounded In an Iranian missile and drone attack on PSAB in Saudi Arabia An E3 Century AWACS aircraft was also damaged I'd say, freaking destroyed Not damaged, destroyed Because I know my maintainers in I'm drinking a white monster as I talk through this But there is no amount of white monsters or rips They can get maintainers to fix that AWACS That thing is cooked Next, U.S. has fired over 850 Tomahawk missiles in the Iran war The U.S. military has expended more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles In four weeks of operations against Iran This rate has alarmed some Pentagon officials And sparked discussions on replacement Or replenishment, rather The high usage strains, precision weapons, stockpiles I can remember back in 2016 Once we got approval to strike ISIS targets We were screaming through hellfires We couldn't keep enough of them And we were smoking these ISIS dudes And it got to a point where higher ups Much higher ups outside of Afghanistan Said that, hey, we gotta pump the brakes Because we can't produce hellfires fast enough To get them out to you guys That's how many ISIS dudes we were smoking And it was a glorious, glorious time Next, Houthi missile attack on Israel raises Red Sea concerns Iranian-backed Houthi rebels launched a missile at Israel Marking their entry into the wider conflict This raises fears of renewed attacks on the Red Sea shipping routes Of course, not surprised there And the incident could further disrupt global trade Yeah, no shit We'll see what happens though Alright, last but not least Pakistan to host Iranian-US-slash-Iranian talks Pakistan announced it will host talks between the US and Iran Aim to ending the month-long war It remains unclear if discussions will be direct or indirect And mediators are gathering in Islamabad Alright, don't forget to like, subscribe, hit that notification bell Head over to onesready.com if you want some merch You can check out any of our partners as well If you go to the top right hand side where's this prep Partner discounts, we've got all of those down there So if you're looking for training plans, you've got 18-hour fitness You've got a modern athlete's strength system If you're looking for some personal coaching You can do a modern athlete's strength system As in personal life coaching They have a 90-day unchained modern athlete's strength system Also, you have John Malora, who has Elite Action Academy He's been on the podcast multiple times If you're looking for gear to help you prep You can do a tackle eat Click on that link, it'll take you to their site And if you have pop-up blockers enabled Or disabled, rather Then it'll pop up a discount code for you to use So you can get some money off Alright, we're out here, see ya! 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