U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers look to have just flown close to the Venezuelan coast, as well as outlying islands belonging to the country in the Caribbean Sea. Just last week, a trio of the Air Force’s B-52 bombers was tracked in the same general area of the Caribbean. The U.S. military subsequently confirmed those sorties and that the bombers had been accompanied by U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters. There is a larger U.S. government effort to put pressure on Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, ostensibly over illegal drug trafficking, with a growing possibility of direct military action against targets in that country.
Online flight tracking data shows at least two B-1 bombers departing Dyess Air Force Base in Texas earlier today. KC-135 tankers were also tracked leaving MacDill Air Force Base in Florida some 90 minutes later. What appeared to be B-1s, using the callsigns BARB21 and BARB22, were subsequently tracked flying near Venezuela. The available online tracks, which may not be entirely accurate, suggest that the bombers may have come within around 50 miles of the Venezuelan coast, and even closer to the Los Testigos islands.
Flight tracking data and publicly available air traffic control audio also subsequently pointed to a flurry of other U.S. military air activity over the Caribbean near Venezuela at the time, including the presence of KC-135 tankers and an RC-135 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft. What type of RC-135 may have been in the area is unclear, but RC-135V/W Rivet Joints have been tracked in this general region in the past.
In addition, one of the Air Force’s E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft was tracked flying in the general direction of Puerto Rico — where the U.S. is staging significant military capabilities — today. Whether or not that sortie was directly related to the other U.S. military aerial activity in the southern end of the Caribbean is unknown, but the presence of this aircraft is of particular note. It facilitates communications and data sharing across a substantial portion of a theater and is uniquely capable of enabling complex military operations, relaying information to desperate ‘customers’ and fuzing and rebroadcasting data from various datalink waveforms. It is especially useful for enabling communications from the surface of the planet to aircraft in the air and other platforms around the battlespace, as well as supporting special operations missions.
The Wall Street Journal has further confirmed the B-1 sorties, citing anonymous officials. However, remarks from President Donald Trump have also now caused some confusion.
“There’s reporting that the US just sent B-1 bombers near Venezuela to ramp up some military pressure there. Is that accurate, and can you tell us more about that mission?” a reporter asked Trump at a press conference today.
“No, it’s not accurate. It’s false,” he responded. “But we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons.”
TWZ has reached out to the Pentagon, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), and Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) for clarification and more information. STRATCOM redirected us to the Pentagon.
Regardless, as TWZ noted following the B-52 sorties last week, there is a well-established precedent for employing Air Force bombers in counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. The range and targeting capabilities that the B-52 and the B-1 possess can be and have been employed to help spot and track suspected drug smuggling vessels.
As was the case last week, the online flight tracking data at least clearly points to a show of force aimed at Venezuela. The U.S. military itself described last week’s B-52 flights as a “bomber attack demonstration mission.”
Any direct action against the U.S. military might take against Venezuela could easily involve standoff strikes launched from B-1s, as well as other platforms. The bombers could also prosecute targets on land and at sea with other conventional munitions as part of any such operation. Venezuelan armed forces have limited air defense capabilities, but they could still pose a credible threat, as TWZ has previously explored in detail.
Just yesterday, Venezuela’s Maduro pointedly claimed that his country’s military has 5,000 Igla-S man-portable short-range surface-to-air missiles in “key air defense positions” across the country. Reuters also reported yesterday that it had reviewed documents that appeared to corroborate this assertion. However, that same story noted that Venezuelan forces are only understood to have 1,500 so-called “grip stocks” that are needed to actually fire those missiles.
The video below, from 2009, shows Igla-S shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles in Venezuelan service.
Other Venezuelan air defense assets also continue to be spotted in forward-deployed positions.
The Venezuelan military’s other ground, air, and naval capabilities are similarly limited, but there are certain elements that could still present some degree of a threat in the event of a violent U.S. intervention. The country’s stocks of Russian-made Kh-31 air-launched supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles are one example of this, as TWZ highlighted just this week.
Any aerial activity off the Venezuelan coast today notably follows remarks yesterday from Trump about the possibility of ordering attacks on drug cartels on land. This comes as the administration’s current campaign of strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats has now expanded from the Caribbean Sea into the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Trump talked about the potential for strikes against cartel targets on land during a joint press conference with visiting NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House last night. The president’s initial comments came in direct response to a question about strikes on boats in the Eastern Pacific. The Pentagon had announced the first known strike in that body of water earlier in the day. American authorities disclosed a second one some hours after Trump had made his remarks alongside Rutte.
“I will say, there are very few boats traveling on the water right now. Actually, that includes fishing boats, that includes any other kind of boat. But there are very few boats traveling on the water, so now they’ll come in by land … to a lesser extent,” Trump said. “And they will be hit on land also.”
Trump was then asked a question about legal authorities to conduct such strikes. Questions have already been raised about the legality of the U.S. strikes on boats alleged to be involved in drug smuggling, as well as the underlying intelligence. U.S. forces are known to have targeted at least eight small boats as part of this ongoing campaign since September, six in the Caribbean and two in the Eastern Pacific.
“Yes, we do, we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that. And if we do by land, we may go back to Congress. But this is a national security problem,” Trump said. “And we will hit them very hard when they come in by land, and they haven’t experienced that yet, but now we’re totally prepared to do that. We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain what we’re doing when we come to the land.”
Trump did not elaborate on where strikes on land targeting drug cartels might occur.
The president’s comments yesterday were widely taken in the broader context of the U.S. government’s recent efforts to put particular pressure on the Maduro regime in Venezuela. However, Venezuela does not share a land border with the United States, or have an Eastern Pacific coastline. Mexico, among other countries, does. There have also been reports in the past that the Trump administration has been considering taking direct action against drug cartels in Mexico. That remains a possibility, but one that would be fraught with its own particular set of complexities and risks, as TWZ has previously explored in detail.
At the same time, Venezuela does continue to be a focal point in the U.S. government’s current ostensible counter-drug operations across the Western Hemisphere.
Beyond the flights by the B-1s and other aircraft today, there has also been a larger U.S. military build-up in the region, which includes a host of crewed and uncrewed aircraft. F-35Bs and AC-130s have also been forward deployed, for instance, among other aircraft. Among the U.S. naval flotilla is an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) packed with Marines with USS Iwo Jima at its center, as well as a handful of destroyers, a cruiser and a nuclear submarine. The appearance of the Ocean Trader, a shadowy special operations mothership, has been a particular stand-out. Helicopters belonging to the U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment have been spotted flying over waters near Venezuela, as well.
All of this comes amid reports that American forces could be poised to launch covert operations against Maduro and his regime. Last week, Trump confirmed reports that he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to undertake covert activities in Venezuela.
“Wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?” Trump said at a press conference last week when asked if the CIA now has the authority to depose Maduro. “But I think Venezuela is feeling heat. But I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat, too.”
It is worth noting that Trump has also been increasingly sparring with Colombian President Gustavo Petro in the past week or so. Petro has accused the U.S. government of “murder” in its strikes on the alleged drug-smuggling boats. Over the weekend, Trump had responded by calling his Colombian counterpart “an illegal drug leader” in a post on his Truth Social social network.
The scale and scope of any U.S. operation against ostensible cartel targets on land in Venezuela, or anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere, remains to be seen. Depending on the chosen course of action, such as standoff missile strikes, American forces would not necessarily have to be present on the ground, even briefly, either.
“Several people familiar with internal administration deliberations said any initial land attack would probably be a targeted operation on alleged trafficker encampments or clandestine airstrips, rather than a direct attempt to unseat Maduro,” The Washington Post reported yesterday. “Some said the U.S. deployments and boat strikes were psychological warfare to promote fractures in the Venezuelan armed forces or persuade Maduro to step down.”
However, “having declared war against narco-terrorists, and designated Maduro as the head of at least one of them, ‘there really is no turning back unless Maduro is essentially not in power,’ said one person among those interviewed for this article who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue,” that report added. “‘At the end of the day, if you have authority to take out cartel runners … you can take out the cartel boss,’ the person said.”
Today’s B-1 sorties, coupled with Trump’s comments yesterday, only add to concerns about the potential for further major escalations in U.S. military operations aimed at Venezuela’s Maduro and other actors in the region.
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