Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Thursday the inauguration of Operation Souther Spear. This operation, Hegseth said, "defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people."
President Trump ordered action — and the Department of War is delivering.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 13, 2025
Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR.
Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our…
The announcement came two days after Carrier Strike Group 12, led by the carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, entered USSOUTHCOM's Tactical Area of Operations. The Ford passing under the control of USSOUTHCOM's Naval element, the US 4th Fleet, probably completes one of the largest concentrations of US Navy assets in the last two decades. The Ford and her consorts, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), and USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), will join ships already present, including:
- Amphibious assault ships USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) (flagship), USS San Antonio (LPD-17), USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), with about 2,000 Marines of the Camp Lejeune-based 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit.
- Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), USS Gravely (DDG-107), USS Stockdale (DDG-106), and USS Sampson (DDG-102)
- Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70).
- Littoral combat ship USS Wichita (LCS-13) — in case things are slow and they need practice towing things to port.
- MV Ocean Trader, a Special Warfare Support vessel.
- Allegedly, a nuclear submarine has joined the flotilla; this is probably one that has been modified to deliver SEAL teams (for more information, see Classified Navy SEAL Mission Leaked to Damage President Trump Harms National Security Instead).
- At least 10 F-35 fighters (Aguadilla's Rafael Hernández Airport) and three AC-130J gunships (Ceiba's José Aponte de la Torre Airport) have also deployed to the AOR.
Many moving pieces in SOUTHCOM as the Ford Carrier Strike Group steams toward the Caribbean & POTUS considers striking land targets in Venezuela.
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) November 10, 2025
Visualizing U.S. force posture, w/ illustrative Tomahawk Land Attack Missile & Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile strike packages: pic.twitter.com/fEEusUZFTe
We've previously reported on the extensive construction underway at military facilities in Puerto Rico; see Russia Threatens to Send Venezuela Missiles That Can Reach DC – RedState.
BACKGROUND:
US Dusts Off War Plans Against Venezuela As Caribbean Troop Build-Up Gains Velocity – RedState
US Carrier Strike Group Ordered to Caribbean Immediately; Is Armed Conflict Inevitable? – RedState
There is more than a little uncertainty over what Operation Southern Spear looks like and what it is supposed to do.
What is curious is that the operation's name seems to be a continuation of a U.S. Navy operation dating from shortly after President Trump was inaugurated.
“Southern Spear will operationalize a heterogeneous mix of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking while learning lessons for other theaters,” said Cmdr. Foster Edwards, 4th Fleet’s Hybrid Fleet Director. “Southern Spear will continue our (4th Fleet’s) move away from short-duration experimentation into long-duration operations that will help develop critical techniques and procedures in integrating RAS into the maritime environment.”
Specifically, Operation Southern Spear will deploy long-dwell robotic surface vessels, small robotic interceptor boats, and vertical take-off and landing robotic air vessels to the USSOUTHCOM AOR. 4th Fleet will operationalize these unmanned systems through integration with U.S. Coast Guard cutters at sea and operations centers at 4th Fleet and Joint Interagency Task Force South. Southern Spear’s results will help determine combinations of unmanned vehicles and manned forces needed to provide coordinated maritime domain awareness and conduct counternarcotics operations.
Your guess as to what this means is as good as mine, as I seem to have misplaced my Bureaucratese-to-English translator.
It is unlikely that "Southern Spear" was selected by accident or that someone, within days of retirement, decided to prank Hegseth; however, the connection between the selection and the arrival of the Ford strike group remains a mystery.
Hegseth announced Operation Southern Spear hours after the twentieth U.S. military strike against drug traffickers was made public.
Shortly after news broke that the U.S. military had conducted its 20th lethal strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the naming of “Operation Southern Spear,” which has a mission to quash “narco-terrorists” in the… pic.twitter.com/Pu6Bq1e9Cy
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) November 14, 2025
As I've posted before, the massing of military forces brings its own logic. You can mindlessly sustain the deployment, you can slink away and encourage more bad behavior on the part of the person you were trying to intimidate, or you can kill people and break things. I don't think either Trump or Hegseth is inclined to see this operation become a laughing stock in Caracas, Bogota, Moscow, and Beijing. The fact that Hegseth said, "The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it," leads me to believe we'll see action in the near future and that action will be the first stage in eliminating narco-cartels and Chinese influence from the Hemisphere, see Trump's Campaign Against Venezuela Is Jumpstarting the Monroe Doctrine – RedState.
As our military ratchets up the pressure on drug cartels, military operations against Venezuela seem increasingly inevitable. To get the best and most up to day coverage, you can’t go wrong relying in RedState. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
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