Satellite images of a US military ship just under 200km from the coastline of Venezuela, carrying out military drills, have been verified by Sky News.
Defence expert and former US military colonel Mark Cancian said the operation could be viewed by the Venezuelan regime, characterised by its authoritarian rule under President Nicolas Maduro, as an intimidation tactic.
It comes as the US has been scaling up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, deploying warships, aircraft and thousands of troops.
Officials have said they are targeting drug trafficking networks, but it has raised speculation that the US might be preparing to attack key Venezuelan military targets without congressional approval.
On 24 October, US President Donald Trump said that “drugs coming in by sea are 5% of what they were a year ago, so now they’re coming in by land, and even the land is concerned because I told them that’s going to be next”.
Announcements by Mr Trump and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Truth Social and X indicate 61 people have been killed in the strikes on boats since the first strike was announced on 2 September.
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On 30 October, US Southern Command posted videos and photos on X of Marines conducting live-fire drills.
A live fire exercise is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance are used, as opposed to blanks or dummies. It helps troops prepare for combat and train in realistic scenarios.
Sky News has verified satellite imagery that shows the position of USS Iwo Jima, the ship where these live-shooting drills were happening. The imagery shows the ship under 200km away from the coastline of Venezuela.
USS Iwo Jima is an amphibious assault ship that serves as a core component of US expeditionary forces, capable of launching amphibious invasions.
USS Iwo Jima was also seen accompanied by two other USS destroyers, within around 20km of each other.
The ship’s arrival follows the announcement that the USS Gerald R Ford Aircraft carrier is also being moved towards the Caribbean Sea, with three US destroyers alongside it.
Sean Parnell, assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs, said in a statement on X on 24 October that the forces will “enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle” transnational criminal organisations.
He was thought to be describing fishing boats which they suspected of trafficking drugs, but so far there is no evidence to confirm this.
The deployment means there will be 14% of the US Navy’s fleet in the Caribbean, showing a significant build-up of force.
USS Gerald R Ford was spotted just off the coast of Italy on its way to the Caribbean on 29 October.
Mr Cancian, senior advisor of defence and security at the Centre for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), told Sky News: “The United States only has 11 carriers, three are at sea at any one time. So, moving one of them into the Caribbean is very significant, it does a couple of things. It puts more pressure on the Maduro regime, and it brings a lot of combat power into the Caribbean.”
He described the USS Gerald R Ford as a “use it or lose it” asset, saying “it’s so powerful and so scarce, carrier strike groups, that other regional commanders will want to use the battle group”.
He added, when the airstrike carrier arrives in the Caribbean, a decision will have to be made.
“If the administration wants to conduct strikes, the arrival of the Ford would open that window for those attacks,” he said.
On 30 October, the Wall Street Journal reported that US officials said the Trump administration has identified targets in Venezuela that include military facilities used to smuggle drugs.
Is the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier the best military asset for targeting drug boats?
Nick Brown, director at Janes defence intelligence company, told Sky News the “Gerald R Ford is the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier and the largest warship currently in US service”.
He said there are 4,805 crew members on board and a full range of precision air-to-surface bombs, missiles and rockets, “able to tackle a wide variety of tactical and strategic targets”.
The aircraft carrier also carries an abundance of fighter jets, typically 24 F/A-18s and 24 F-35s.
Mr Cancian said: “It’s not a very good asset for countering drug traffic. The strike aircraft are very powerful, but they move too fast to identify small boats. There are some helicopters that could help, but what the carrier is very good at is attacks against adversary military forces or targets ashore.
“The strike aircraft operate at 500, 600mph. So, they’re going very fast. And to spot a small boat and then to identify it, very difficult.”
Increasing pressure in the skies
As well as the sea, the US appears to have been more active in the air over the Caribbean Sea. Flight tracking data shows the US have flown bombers off the Venezuelan coast, B1s and B52s.
The B1-B bomber is primarily a fast, heavy-hitting conventional “bomb truck” designed rapidly to deliver massive amounts of precision weapons, while the B-52 bomber is a versatile, long-range “missile truck”.
Flight tracking data from 27 October shows two B1-B bomber jets flying over the Caribbean Sea.
“The administration has flown bombers off the Venezuelan coast, B1s and B52s. So, they have been steadily increasing the pressure,” Mr Cancian said.
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Three B-52 bombers were also seen on flight tracking on 30 October, leaving from Jacksonville (Florida) and Shreveport (Louisiana). They circled their surrounding areas for two hours before returning to their base.
The satellite imagery below shows six F35-B fighter jets, capable of performing air-to-surface, electronic warfare, intelligence gathering, and air-to-air missions simultaneously at Puerto Rico on 17 October.
Uptick of strikes in the Pacific
US Southern Command have been criticised for choosing targets in the Caribbean Sea rather than the Eastern Pacific.
Mr Cancian explained that “much of the drug traffic that comes to the United States allegedly comes along the Pacific route… so not focusing on that flow” was considered curious.
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On 28 October, the US Southern Command defended their operational targets in a post on X saying: “The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”
The US has conducted seven strikes on ‘drug boats’ in the Eastern Pacific since 21 October. On 28 October, Mr Hegseth announced 14 had been killed in four strikes on the previous day.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
