Trump Ramps Up Forces To Crush Venezuelan Narcos

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – The U.S. is beefing up its air and naval forces in the southern Caribbean to better confront the Venezuelan dictator’s narco-terror operations.

The deployment includes at least five F-35B fighter jets, helicopters, V-22 Ospreys, and military personnel at Puerto Rico’s former Roosevelt Roads base — now the José Aponte de la Torre Airport — alongside a naval force of multiple destroyers, amphibious ships, and a nuclear-powered submarine.

Flight of six F-35B stealth fighters landed in Puerto Rico to take part in the Trump Administration’s enhanced operation against narcotraffickers, also aimed at Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Personnel from a U.S. warship boarded a Venezuelan tuna boat while it was sailing in Venezuelan waters, Venezuela’s foreign minister said.

U.S. has sent at least two MQ-9 Reaper drones to the Caribbean in recent weeks, the latest bit of air power deployed to the region since August.

Map shows U.S. forces in the Caribbean.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense stories ending the week from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

New report estimates the Golden Dome missile defense program could cost anywhere from $252 billion to $3.6 trillion over 20 years — depending on which threats it counters and where it provides coverage.

U.S. needs to be building tens of thousands of Shahed-136 clones right now. Comparatively inexpensive one-way attack munitions are big threat and blurring the lines between cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems.

HOMELAND SECURITY

Federal employees are facing warnings from agency leaders to refrain from criticizing or mocking Charlie Kirk’s murder, the Christian conservative martyr assassinated this week.

A fake post on an anonymous chat platform triggered a lockdown at the Naval Academy this week, and authorities investigating what turned out to be a false report of a gunman then shot and injured a midshipman who had mistaken them as a threat.

Trump said he’ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns in Memphis with support from the mayor and Tennessee’s governor, making it his latest expansion of military forces into American cities.

Trump administration plans to activate 1,000 Louisiana National Guard troops to serve in a law enforcement mission focused on the state’s “urban centers.”

Ghana will take in people expelled from the U.S. as part of a wave of deportations ordered by the Trump administration, though its president stresses that most are West Africans.

DEFENSE POLITICS

Once again, lawmakers are trying to claw back their responsibility under the Constitution to declare war. On Wednesday, the House passed legislation that would repeal two authorizations for use of military force from 1991 and 2002 passed prior to the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars.

It’s been less than a week since President Trump signed an executive order designating the Department of Defense as the Department of War and the Pentagon’s IT agency has seemingly already renamed the networks and infrastructure used for missions worldwide.

U.S. naval shipyards accelerating outsourcing for new construction programs.

With $1B and a new shipyard, Canada’s Davie sets sights on U.S. Coast Guard’s new icebreaker say head of Davie Defense, a new American sister company of the well-known Canadian shipbuilder Davie.

US POWER OVERSEAS

Air Force’s F-16-based electronic warfare suite is being rushed to the field to support an urgent requirement in the Middle East.

MIDDLE EAST THREATS

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, shortly after he arrived in Israel to discuss diplomacy in the region and the war in Gaza.

Israeli military struck multiple high-rise buildings in Gaza City, after warning people to leave several neighborhoods, in the latest round of attacks since Israel ordered a complete evacuation of the city earlier this week.

Gulf states unite to respond to Israel’s attack on Qatar but find few options. For decades, wealthy Gulf Arab states cast themselves as oases of stability in a region mired in conflict.

Universities around the world cut ties with Israeli academia over Gaza war.

CHINA THREAT

Here’s how Trump can prevent a war over Taiwan. Taiwan keeps moving more to the center of the U.S.-China relationship, increasing the risk of conflict and provokes fretful analysis over what to do about this seemingly intractable situation.

China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier passed through the Taiwan Strait in East China Sea on its way to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions in the South China Sea.”

More than two dozen aircraft from the U.S., Japan and U.K. conducted tactical air exercises Thursday over waters east of Okinawa, Japan, as the security environment in the region grows “increasingly severe.”

RUSSIA THREAT

Trump has said he is ready to sanction Russia, but only if all NATO allies agree to completely halt buying oil from Moscow and impose their own sanctions on Russia to pressure it to end its war in Ukraine.

Russia made drone production a supreme priority. Now it swarms the skies. When Russia introduced self-destructing drones from Iran into its war against Ukraine three years ago, Moscow launched 43 of them into Ukraine in a single strike.

Romanian air defenses tracked a Russian Shahed drone that crossed into the country, the latest incident underscoring how Moscow’s war continues to spill across NATO borders.

British, Danish, French and German “assets” will be deployed to NATO’s eastern flank imminently, under a newly announced Eastern Sentry mission by the alliance to bolster its defenses in the wake of Russia’s drone incursions.

Ukrainian drones have struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, sparking a fires.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Trump’s love of UK royalty is Starmer’s best hope of making ties special again. President Trump is set to enjoy an unprecedented second state visit to the United Kingdom.

‘Far right’ gains stronger foothold in western Germany. Not “far” right. Just right.

Denmark plans to buy the French-Italian SAMP/T system to cover the long-range component of the integrated ground-based air defenses, picking the only European alternative to the U.S. Patriot.

By accusing the UAE of bankrolling atrocities through Colombian fighters, Sudan has recast its conflict as a transcontinental proxy war with consequences for Gulf power struggles, Red Sea security and the fragile Sahel.

Eurofighter Typhoon could become the next fighter aircraft to add the air-to-air optimized variant of the laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rocket to its armament options.

US MILITARY

We now have our first look at the Air Force’s two flying B-21 Raider stealth bombers together at Edwards Air Force Base. The second pre-production B-21 arrived at Edwards after making its maiden flight from Air Force’s Plant 42.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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