U.S. Air Drive B-1B Lancer bombers carried out flights close to the Venezuelan coast on 23 October, because the Pentagon confirmed the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford Provider Strike Group to the area.
The missions, first tracked by open-source flight monitoring accounts, occurred amid a wider U.S. effort to extend army presence within the southern Caribbean.
In response to flight information, two B-1Bs utilizing the callsign “BARB” departed Dyess Air Drive Base, Texas, earlier than flying south over the Caribbean Sea. Monitoring information indicated they got here inside roughly 80 kilometres of Venezuela’s mainland and fewer than 10 kilometres from Los Testigos islands, supported by a KC-135 tanker and an RC-135 reconnaissance plane. An E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node was additionally detected working close to Puerto Rico, facilitating information and communications.
The Pentagon later stated the transfer was a part of “ongoing regional operations” beneath U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), which oversees counter-narcotics and maritime safety missions throughout Latin America. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on 24 October that the US had carried out its tenth airstrike in opposition to suspected drug-smuggling targets within the previous 24 hours.
The Impartial reported that President Donald Trump denied authorising any flights close to Venezuelan airspace, calling the claims “false,” although flight information revealed by open-source researchers appeared to contradict that assertion. Observers famous that the B-1Bs’ transponders have been intentionally activated, suggesting a degree of transparency supposed for signalling functions slightly than concealment.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford service group was ordered “in assist of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Prison Organisations and counter narco-terrorism in defence of the homeland.” The duty pressure will function inside the USSOUTHCOM space of accountability.
The operation kinds a part of a broader strain marketing campaign in opposition to drug cartels and the federal government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington continues to explain as illegitimate. The flights got here shortly after Trump warned that the U.S. “could strike targets on land” if required to defend its pursuits within the area.