Operation Absolute Resolve: Anatomy of a modern decapitation strike
Introduction
At 0201 local time this morning, helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment—the Night Stalkers—crossed into Venezuelan airspace carrying Delta Force operators toward a target in Caracas. Less than three hours later, they were back over water with Nicolás Maduro in custody. The operation, codenamed Absolute Resolve, represents the most significant U.S. direct action operation in Latin America since Panama in 1989.
This analysis examines the operation through an asymmetric warfare lens: the intelligence architecture that enabled it, the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) campaign that protected it, and the doctrinal implications for future operations. The purpose is not political commentary but operational education.
The Intelligence Foundation
Decapitation strikes live or die on intelligence. The operation to capture Maduro required answering a deceptively simple question: where will the target be, precisely, at the moment of execution? Getting this wrong means mission failure or, worse, hitting the wrong target.
According to sources cited by ABC News, the CIA had maintained a clandestine ground team in Venezuela since August 2025—five months of patient intelligence collection. This team provided what one source described as “extraordinary insight into Maduro’s pattern of life that made grabbing him seamless.” Pattern-of-life analysis is the foundation of modern targeting: understanding where a subject sleeps, how they move, what their security looks like, what their fallback options are.
This human intelligence (HUMINT) layer was complemented by persistent technical collection. An RQ-170 Sentinel—the same stealth drone platform that overflew Abbottabad before the Bin Laden raid—was observed returning to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico after the operation. The RQ-170 is designed for penetrating contested airspace to collect imagery and signals intelligence. Its presence confirms that the U.S. had been conducting ISR overflights of Venezuela well before kinetic action began.
The ISR architecture also included the MV Ocean Trader, a special warfare support vessel that had been operating in the Caribbean alongside the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group since at least late December. Ocean Trader provides signals intelligence collection, communications relay, and command-and-control support for special operations. Its presence indicates a mature intelligence preparation of the operational environment.
Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses
Helicopter assaults into defended airspace are among the most dangerous operations in modern warfare. Venezuela’s air defenses, while not advanced by peer-competitor standards, included S-300VM systems, Buk-M2 medium-range SAMs, and extensive man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). The 160th SOAR’s MH-60M Black Hawks and MH-47G Chinooks are extraordinarily capable, but they’re still helicopters—vulnerable to anything that can put metal in the air.
The solution was a comprehensive SEAD campaign executed simultaneously with the helicopter ingress. According to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine, the operation involved over 150 aircraft operating from more than 20 locations. The package included F-22 Raptors, F-35 Lightning IIs, F/A-18 Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, E-2D Hawkeyes, and—notably—B-1B Lancer strategic bombers.
The Growlers deserve particular attention. The EA-18G is the U.S. Navy’s primary electronic attack platform, capable of jamming enemy radar and communications while also delivering kinetic effects with AGM-88 HARM missiles. Their presence, along with at least one EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft, suggests a significant electronic attack component designed to blind Venezuelan air defenses during the critical helicopter transit windows.
Targets struck included Generalísimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base (La Carlota), the air base at Barquisimeto, Fuerte Tiuna military complex, and multiple helicopter facilities. The pattern suggests a deliberate effort to destroy Venezuelan aerial response capability and degrade command-and-control infrastructure. Trump’s cryptic reference to the “lights of Caracas” being “turned off due to a certain expertise” points to attacks on power infrastructure—likely targeting military communications and radar systems dependent on the grid.
The Direct Action Component
With air defenses suppressed and ISR confirming the target’s location, Delta Force executed the capture. The 160th SOAR’s helicopter force began ingress at 0601 UTC (0201 local) and was back over water by 0820 UTC—a ground time of approximately two hours including flight time into and out of Caracas.
Sources indicate Maduro and his wife were “dragged from their bedroom” during the raid—suggesting the assault team achieved complete surprise despite the concurrent air campaign. This speaks to the quality of intelligence: knowing not just which building, but which room, at what time.
One helicopter was damaged by ground fire but remained operational. Trump noted that “a couple of guys were hit” but there were no U.S. fatalities. The low casualty count in a deep urban penetration against a defended target is remarkable and reflects both the effectiveness of the SEAD campaign and the precision of the intelligence that guided the assault.
Maduro was extracted to the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship that had been serving as the special operations mothership for the buildup. The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, embarked aboard the Iwo Jima ARG, likely provided quick reaction force capability and additional helicopter lift if required.
Sequencing and Tempo
What made Absolute Resolve possible was not a single capability but the integration of multiple capabilities over time. The operational sequence can be understood in phases:
Phase One: Intelligence Preparation (August-December 2025). CIA ground teams established in Venezuela. RQ-170 and other ISR assets mapped air defenses, communications networks, and target patterns of life. The military buildup in the Caribbean provided cover for increased ISR activity.
Phase Two: Shaping Operations (September-December 2025). Strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats established precedent for kinetic action and tested Venezuelan response capabilities. The December 24 CIA drone strike on a Venezuelan port facility was likely a final probe of air defense alertness and reaction time.
Phase Three: Final Preparation (Late December 2025). Authorization received days before execution. All capabilities positioned by Christmas Day. The agreement with Trinidad and Tobago for airfield access provided additional forward operating locations.
Phase Four: Execution (January 3, 2026). Simultaneous SEAD campaign and helicopter assault. Electronic warfare degraded Venezuelan situational awareness. Ground force achieved surprise and executed capture. Extraction completed before organized response.
A Note on Timing
Aviation analysts have noted that the operation was conducted during a nearly full moon—far from optimal for helicopter operations that typically rely on darkness and night vision advantage. This suggests either the target window was time-sensitive (perhaps intelligence indicated Maduro might move or change his pattern) or the SEAD package was considered sufficient to offset the reduced concealment.
The full-moon timing may also indicate confidence in the electronic warfare component. If Venezuelan forces couldn’t see the helicopters on radar and couldn’t communicate effectively to coordinate a response, the visual advantage of moonlight becomes less relevant. The attackers’ night vision still provided advantage over defenders operating without power.
Doctrinal Implications
Absolute Resolve offers several lessons for students of asymmetric warfare:
The primacy of intelligence. Five months of patient collection enabled a three-hour operation. The ratio is instructive: the intelligence preparation phase was roughly 1,200 times longer than the kinetic phase. This is consistent with historical patterns in high-value target operations.
Integration over platforms. The operation succeeded not because of any single capability but because of the integration of HUMINT, technical ISR, electronic warfare, air superiority, and special operations ground forces. No single platform or unit could have achieved the outcome independently.
Legal architecture as operational enabler. The 2020 narco-terrorism indictments provided the legal framework for what was characterized as a law enforcement operation supported by military force—rather than an invasion. This framing shaped rules of engagement, authorities, and the post-capture disposition of the target.
The compression of the kill chain. From intelligence confirmation to capture was measured in hours, not days. This tempo compression is the product of forward-positioned ISR assets, pre-approved strike authorities, and rehearsed assault teams. The infrastructure to sustain this tempo has been built over two decades of counterterrorism operations.
Historical Parallels
Delta Force’s history with head-of-state captures includes Manuel Noriega (Panama, 1989), Saddam Hussein (Iraq, 2003), and now Maduro. The unit was also central to the Bin Laden raid (2011) and the al-Baghdadi operation (2019). Each operation built on lessons from its predecessors.
The 160th SOAR has been the aviation component for most of these operations, from the Bin Laden compound insertion to the al-Baghdadi raid in Syria. Their institutional knowledge of penetrating defended airspace at night to deliver and extract assault teams is unmatched.
What distinguishes Absolute Resolve is the scale of the supporting SEAD campaign. Neither the Bin Laden nor al-Baghdadi raids required suppression of integrated air defense systems. Venezuela, despite its limitations, possessed more sophisticated air defense architecture than Pakistan’s tribal areas or Syrian ISIS-held territory. The air component of this operation was closer in complexity to a conventional strike package than to previous special operations insertions.
Conclusion
Operation Absolute Resolve demonstrates the current state of U.S. direct action capability: the ability to integrate persistent ISR, electronic warfare, air superiority, and ground special operations to achieve effects that would have been impossible a generation ago. The infrastructure—technical, organizational, and doctrinal—that made this possible was built through twenty-five years of continuous combat operations.
For practitioners and students of asymmetric warfare, the operation offers a masterclass in capability integration. For adversaries, it offers a warning: pattern-of-life analysis, stealth ISR, and electronic warfare have compressed the decision space for defending against U.S. direct action to near-zero for targets who do not possess peer-level denial capabilities.
The political and strategic implications of regime change in Venezuela remain to be seen. But the operational execution of Absolute Resolve will be studied for years as an example of what modern joint special operations can achieve when properly resourced and intelligently integrated.
Josh Luberisse is an independent researcher and author specializing in asymmetric warfare, cybersecurity, and intelligence studies.