Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 2nd, 2026: Thousands More U.S. Troops Are Heading Toward Iran & Ukraine’s New Ballistic Missile

Transcript

PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 2nd, 2026: Thousands More U.S. Troops Are Heading Toward Iran & Ukraine’s New Ballistic Missile · The President's Daily Brief

• 0:14
  It's Friday,
• 0:14
  the 2nd of October.
• 0:16
  Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 0:18
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 0:19
  your eyes and ears on the world stage and apparently still on the road.
• 0:24
  All right,
• 0:25
  let's get briefed.
• 0:26
  First up,
• 0:27
  the US
• 0:28
  is sending thousands more troops and potentially a third aircraft carrier
• 0:32
  to the Middle East
• 0:33
  as President Trump
• 0:34
  keeps the door open to renewed strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections.
• 0:39
  Later in the show,
• 0:40
  Ukraine passes a major milestone in its war effort,
• 0:44
  putting its homegrown ballistic missile into combat for the first time.
• 0:48
  But first,
• 0:49
  today's afternoon spotlight.
• 0:51
  The US is sending another major wave of military power toward the Middle East,
• 0:56
  potentially putting 3 American aircraft carriers in the region
• 1:00
  at the same time.
• 1:01
  Now,
• 1:01
  according to reports,
• 1:02
  the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group
• 1:05
  is now heading toward the region
• 1:07
  along with the USS Mackin Island,
• 1:09
  amphibious Ready Group,
• 1:11
  and Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
• 1:15
  Altogether we're talking about roughly 9000 additional sailors and Marines.
• 1:20
  And they'll be joining obviously an
• 1:22
  already significant American military presence.
• 1:25
  The USS George HW Bush and the USS George Washington
• 1:28
  are both operating in the Middle East right now,
• 1:31
  along with ships from the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group.
• 1:35
  If the George Washington remains in theater when the Roosevelt arrives,
• 1:39
  the US will once again have 3 carrier strike groups concentrated in the Middle East.
• 1:44
  Now that overlap isn't guaranteed.
• 1:47
  The USS Washington may head back toward its home port in Japan,
• 1:52
  but if all three are there together,
• 1:54
  we're looking at a level of American naval power that we haven't seen in the region
• 1:58
  since the spring of this year.
• 2:00
  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also extended the
• 2:03
  deployments of American air defense units in the region
• 2:06
  along with elements of the Army's eighty-second Airborne Division.
• 2:10
  The US already has around 20 navy ships operating in the region,
• 2:14
  helping enforce the blockade of Iran and protect commercial shipping.
• 2:18
  Now,
• 2:18
  as we've been covering here on the PDB,
• 2:20
  President Trump just recently rejected Iran's latest ceasefire proposal.
• 2:25
  That offer
• 2:27
  supposedly included a seven-day pause in the fighting,
• 2:30
  reopening the Strait of Hormuz,
• 2:32
  and supposedly restarting negotiations over Iran's nuclear program
• 2:37
  in exchange for concessions from Washington,
• 2:39
  including easing the blockade and economic relief.
• 2:43
  In an interview with Time published earlier this week.
• 2:45
  The president was asked directly whether the US could ramp up
• 2:48
  its bombing campaign against Iran after the November 3rd midterm elections.
• 2:53
  Trump said it was possible.
• 2:55
  He wouldn't say what that might look like or what the US might target.
• 2:59
  So while the president keeps that option on the table,
• 3:01
  the Pentagon is positioning significantly more military power in the region,
• 3:06
  and that of course gives the White House options.
• 3:09
  More carrier aircraft means more capacity for strike operations.
• 3:12
  Additional air defenses give American forces greater protection
• 3:16
  against Iranian missiles and drones.
• 3:18
  The amphibious group
• 3:19
  brings thousands of sailors and marines and another rapid response capability.
• 3:24
  And the US
• 3:25
  does continue to maintain the naval forces needed to enforce its blockade
• 3:29
  and keep shipping moving through the region.
• 3:32
  Putting another
• 3:33
  carrier and thousands of additional American troops into the region
• 3:36
  sends the Iranian regime a rather visible message
• 3:40
  about what could happen if diplomacy fails.
• 3:43
  And there is the question though of
• 3:45
  what happens should the US re-engage with military strikes.
• 3:48
  Iran has already demonstrated that it can
• 3:50
  still threaten American forces in the region.
• 3:53
  In recent weeks,
• 3:54
  Iranian ballistic missiles have been fired at US warships,
• 3:57
  and the Iranian leadership has just issued a warning.
• 4:00
  That any renewed military strikes by the US
• 4:03
  will result in the regime
• 4:05
  engaging in a broader response than in the past.
• 4:08
  For now,
• 4:09
  the diplomatic track reportedly remains
• 4:11
  open primarily through Qatari mediators.
• 4:14
  But as the USS Roosevelt makes its way to the region
• 4:18
  and neither side
• 4:19
  appears interested in making the first move with concessions.
• 4:23
  Well,
• 4:23
  the clock may be running out on a potential negotiated deal.
• 4:27
  All right.
• 4:28
  Coming up next,
• 4:29
  Ukraine's new FP-7 ballistic missile has now moved from testing
• 4:33
  to combat.
• 4:34
  The next challenge,
• 4:35
  of course,
• 4:36
  is making enough of them.
• 4:38
  I'll be right back.
• 4:40
  Hey,
• 4:40
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  Odds are,
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  Um,
• 5:51
  all right,
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  fine.
• 5:51
  Nobody probably uses a phone book anymore.
• 5:53
  But my point is,
• 5:54
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• 5:55
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• 6:45
  Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin.
• 6:47
  Ukraine says it's crossed an important threshold in its
• 6:50
  effort to build more of its own long-range weapons.
• 6:53
  President Zelensky announced on Thursday that Ukraine has
• 6:56
  used its domestically produced FP-7 tactical ballistic missile
• 7:00
  in combat
• 7:02
  for the first time.
• 7:03
  Zelensky posted video of the launch
• 7:05
  and offered a very brief assessment.
• 7:07
  First combat use.
• 7:08
  Thank you for the result,
• 7:10
  and next comes production.
• 7:12
  Ukraine has not said where the missile was fired,
• 7:14
  what it targeted,
• 7:15
  or what kind of damage it caused.
• 7:17
  So it's hard to say yet how effective the FP7 proved on the battlefield.
• 7:22
  But the fact that Ukraine has gotten this weapon
• 7:24
  from the development stage into combat is very significant.
• 7:28
  The FP-7 is built by the Ukrainian defense company FirePoint
• 7:32
  and has a reported range of roughly 200 kilometers.
• 7:35
  That's
• 7:36
  approximately 125 miles.
• 7:38
  The missile can also carry a warhead of around 330 pounds.
• 7:42
  Firepoint has compared it to the American-made Attakam's
• 7:45
  missiles that Ukraine has received from the US,
• 7:48
  but
• 7:48
  says the Ukrainian weapon can be produced for roughly half the cost.
• 7:52
  And that's really where this becomes important.
• 7:54
  For years,
• 7:55
  Ukraine's ability to conduct precision missile
• 7:57
  strikes beyond the immediate front lines
• 8:00
  has depended heavily on weapons supplied by the US and other Western countries.
• 8:04
  That means Kiev has also been dependent on Western stockpiles,
• 8:08
  Western production capacities,
• 8:10
  and in some cases political decisions about how those weapons can be used.
• 8:14
  A Ukrainian-built ballistic missile begins to change that equation.
• 8:18
  If Ukraine can manufacture the FP-7 in meaningful numbers,
• 8:21
  it would give Kiev its own supply of precision weapons
• 8:25
  capable of reaching Russian military targets well behind the front.
• 8:28
  Analysts say that could include missile launch sites,
• 8:31
  logistics hubs,
• 8:32
  and other military infrastructure.
• 8:34
  Zelensky's message points to the next challenge
• 8:37
  production.
• 8:38
  Russia still has a substantial advantage when it
• 8:40
  comes to ballistic missile inventories and manufacturing.
• 8:43
  So the real test for Ukraine
• 8:45
  is whether it can turn this first battlefield launch into
• 8:48
  a weapon that it can produce consistently at scale,
• 8:51
  and Fireo is already working on something considerably more ambitious.
• 8:55
  The company is developing another ballistic missile called the FP-9
• 8:58
  with a claimed range of up to 850 kilometers.
• 9:02
  And if my math is correct,
• 9:03
  that's around 500 miles.
• 9:05
  Company officials say they hope to have that missile ready by the end of this year.
• 9:09
  If those plans hold,
• 9:10
  Ukraine would potentially gain the ability to
• 9:12
  strike military targets much deeper inside Russian territory
• 9:16
  using a weapon designed and produced at home.
• 9:19
  Now,
• 9:19
  it may not be a complete game changer.
• 9:21
  In fact,
• 9:21
  it won't be a game changer in that sense,
• 9:23
  but it does mark another step
• 9:25
  in Ukraine's effort to become less dependent on Western supplies
• 9:29
  for critical munitions.
• 9:31
  And
• 9:32
  that,
• 9:32
  my friends,
• 9:33
  is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday,
• 9:35
  the 2nd of October.
• 9:36
  If you have any questions or comments,
• 9:37
  and I hope you do,
• 9:38
  just reach out to me at PDB@hefirstv.com
• 9:42
  and to listen to the show ad-free,
• 9:43
  well,
• 9:44
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  It's very simple.
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  by visiting PDBpremium.com.
• 9:51
  And finally,
• 9:52
  Uh,
• 9:53
  don't miss this weekend's PDB situation report,
• 9:56
  right?
• 9:56
  The acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson,
• 9:59
  I suspect you've heard of him,
• 10:00
  joins me to talk about artificial intelligence
• 10:03
  and aliens,
• 10:04
  and also to talk about his new book,
• 10:06
  Take Me to Your Leader.
• 10:07
  As it turns out,
• 10:08
  Neil's a pretty smart guy.
• 10:10
  Bill Roggio from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies also joins us
• 10:14
  as we look at the closing of another chapter in the US involvement in Iraq.
• 10:19
  I'm sure that's gonna go well.
• 10:20
  You can catch it this evening at 10:00 p.m. on
• 10:22
  the first TV and of course the show and past episodes
• 10:25
  are always available on our YouTube channel.
• 10:28
  Just go to YouTube and search up at President's Daily Brief,
• 10:31
  and you can find the show wherever you get your podcast stuff.
• 10:35
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 10:35
  and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB situation report.
• 10:39
  Until then,
• 10:40
  stay informed,
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  stay safe,
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  stay cool.
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