The US’s military operation in Venezuela lasted less than three hours. However, the reverberations of this military conflict could be felt for decades to come.
The weapons and strategy used in this operation could not only initiate a new arms race but also change the very nature of warfare.
While there are no official disclosures, there are plenty of indications that suggest that the US used Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), Sonic Weapons, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to plan and execute the operation.
While these weapons systems have been around for years, in some cases even decades, and their use has been reported in military conflicts, this was perhaps the first time in the history of warfare that they were central to the entire operation.
For instance, AI was used to manage logistics operations in the first Gulf War in 1991. Similarly, the use of DEW has been reported even in non-combat situations, most famously in the Havana Syndrome, and mild sonic weapons have been used for crowd control in the US; however, the Venezuela operation was different in that these weapons were central to it.
Rather, one could even argue that the whole Venezuela operation was planned around these new, exotic weapons systems.
This could change the way wars are planned and fought in the coming years.
But first, let’s discuss what we know about the use of these weapons in the Venezuela operation.
The Use of AI, DEW, & Sonic Weapons In The Venezuela Operation
Venezuela had potent Russian and Chinese Air Defense systems, including S-300, Buk-M2E, Pantsir-S1, S-125 Pechora, Igla-S MANPADS, HQ-9, JYL-1, and even the JY-27A anti-stealth radar.
However, despite the presence of these AD systems, US warplanes, including fighter jets, rotary-wing aircraft, and drones, were able to penetrate the Venezuelan airspace and extract President Maduro and his wife, without facing a single casualty.
While the Venezuelan Army looked formidable on paper, it crumbled within hours when faced with the US military’s multi-domain hybrid warfare. The Venezuelan Army, despite its modern weapons systems, was effectively blinded and left inoperative.
After that decisive operation, US officials gradually began providing glimpses of the weapons used, which are rarely discussed publicly.
First hints came from none other than the President himself.
Giving details of the special military operation, Trump said, “It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.”
“It was dark, and it was deadly,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago detailing the operation.
Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the same press conference that U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Space Command, and combatant commands “began layering different effects” to “create a pathway” for U.S. forces flying into the country.
The video footage from January 3 shows the US military helicopters flying over largely dark areas in Caracas.
If one connects the dots, it appears that the US military used non-kinetic capabilities, likely a cyberattack, to degrade Caracas power grid.
In fact, at precisely 2:00 AM on January 3, Caracas’s southern districts plunged into darkness. One minute later, at 2:01 AM, US special operations helicopters touched down at Fort Tiuna to extract Maduro, underlining a high degree of coordination between kinetic and non-kinetic operations.
Power grids are generally stand-alone networks that are not connected to the internet, giving their users a false sense of invincibility. However, these grids can be hacked by infiltrating their software/hardware supply chains, embedding viruses in their source code, or uploading malware during routine maintenance operations.
Since the US had been planning this operation for the last six months, they had ample time, intelligence, and inside information to corrupt the power grid’s operating software.
Then, on January 10, the New York Post published an interview with one of Maduro’s bodyguards, who described the debilitating effects of a novel weapon used by US soldiers.
The US soldiers, the guard said, were technologically very advanced.
They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.
“Because it wasn’t just the weapons. At one point, they launched something—I don’t know how to describe it… It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly, I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.”
“We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.”
This story was also reposted by the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, with the caption “Stop what you are doing and read this.”
Clearly, the soldier was describing the use of directed energy weapons.
A former US intelligence source said the description bore similarities to directed-energy weapons, which use focused energy, such as microwaves or lasers, to disable targets.
“The military has had versions of these for decades,” the source said. “Some of those systems can cause bleeding, pain, burning, and the inability to function.”
There have been reports that the US military has directed energy weapons, which neutralise targets using focused energy such as microwaves or laser beams. But this could be the first time the US has used it in combat, an ex-US intelligence source told The Post.
In fact, it’s not just the US military which have versions of these weapons.
Last week, the Washington Post reported that Russia or some other foreign adversary might have secretly used pulsed energy weapons over the last decade against CIA and state department personnel, inflicting a constellation of symptoms known as “Havana Syndrome.”
Descriptions of the effects of the US and the alleged foreign attacks are eerily similar.
For instance, a 2020 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine described a victim’s experience in the first reported incident of ‘Havana Syndrome’.
“An individual assigned to the US Embassy in Cuba was awakened one night at home in Havana in 2016 by severe pain and a sensation of intense pressure in the face, a loud, piercing sound in one ear with directional features, and acute disequilibrium and nausea. Symptoms of vestibular and cognitive dysfunction ensued.”
The study concluded that these symptoms were most likely caused by directed energy weapons.
In fact, a Norwegian scientist had built a pulsed microwave system and tested it on himself, resulting in neurological symptoms similar to those of Havana syndrome.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that CIA operatives had visited Norway and secretly procured a foreign-made device that used pulsed radio waves, clearly establishing that not just the US, but many other foreign countries have been experimenting with such weapons for years.
Then, on January 24, President Trump, in an interview with the New York Post, said US forces used what he called “the Discombobulator” to storm Maduro’s compound in Caracas.
“I’m not allowed to talk about it. I would love to…. They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one off. We came in, they pressed buttons, and nothing worked.”
Furthermore, on January 23, Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, wrote on X, “Yes, the @DeptofWar has directed energy weapons. Yes, we are scaling them.”
In fact, in 2017, the US Air Force posted a video simulation of a rocket carrying a high-powered microwave system known as CHAMP. The video shows a rolling blackout across a city, like what is said to have happened in Caracas in January, according to the Washington Post.
Again, in 2023, the USAF and US Navy described a microwave weapon known as HIJENKS (High-Powered Joint Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strike), which uses high-powered microwaves for “disabling of computer systems, damaging targeted electronics, disrupting security and industrial control systems, etc.”
“The Department of Defense (DoD) Directed Energy Weapon development effort, High Power Joint Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strike (HIJENKS), successfully completed testing and live-fire demonstration of an advanced high power microwave (HPM) weapon system.”
“HPM weapons create invisible beams of electromagnetic energy within a specific spectrum of radio and microwave frequencies that can cause a range of temporary or permanent effects on electronic targets. Examples include non-kinetic disabling of computer systems, damaging targeted electronics, disrupting security and industrial control systems, etc,” a US military press release said.
A research report by Astute Analytica predicts that in the coming years, there will be an investment boom in such weapons.
The global market for such weapons, the report said, could grow from US$ 7.1 billion in 2024 to US$ 32.5 billion by 2033.
Additionally, on February 15, the Wall Street Journal reported that Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, was actively used in the Venezuelan military operation.
Again, while AI has been used in military conflicts before, for instance, for sorting logistics during the 1991 Gulf War, or by Israel in its war against Hamas in 2023 for target identification, this might be the first instance in history when a whole military operation was planned around AI tools.
We might be entering a new era of warfare, where autonomous drones and algorithm-driven targeting systems threaten to make mass killing a mechanized, near-effortless process, and rockets and drones could trigger rolling blackouts, fry computer circuits, and cause neurological damage to combatants.
While there have been murmurs about these weapons for years, the open admission by the US officials is bound to trigger a new arms race in such exotic weapons.
With the Venezuela mission completed, the question is, will the US use similar tech against Iran?
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- THIS IS AN OPINION ARTICLE. VIEWS PERSONAL OF THE AUTHOR
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
