On January 3, the world witnessed one of the most stunning “surgical strikes” in the history of military operations.
In the dead of the night, nearly 150 aircraft, including fighter jets, rotary-wing aircraft, and drones, enter the capital city of a country the size of Ukraine, extract its President from a heavily-defended military compound, and abduct him back to their warship, all within a span of less than two-and-a-half hours, and without suffering even a single casualty.
What makes this operation even more astonishing is that the entire Venezuelan military apparatus, including its formidable air defense network, was on high alert, fully anticipating the raid.
The world witnessed the visuals of missile strikes inside Caracas, and just a few hours later, they saw the image of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in captivity onboard the US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.
To fully grasp the gravity of this event, we need to go beyond the arrest headlines and the captivating image of Maduro sitting on a US warship, and understand the technological breakthroughs that made this possible.
As the dust settles on this striking military operation and new details emerge about the hybrid warfare employed by the US military, it’s now apparent that on January 3, it was a battle fought between two armies living in different eras.
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.
U.S. Military’s Multi-Domain ‘Hybrid Warfare’
US military officials said that during ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ the US employed a range of assets across land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains.
Meanwhile, 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, 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.
Furthermore, the US military has extensive expertise in conducting military operations in the dark.
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.
However, darkness was not the only advantage the US military held.
According to an interview with one of President Maduro’s guards by the New York Post, the US soldiers also used a weapon far more advanced than anything used by Venezuelan soldiers.
Did The U.S. Military Use ‘Sonic Boom’ Weapons Against Venezuela?
The Venezuelan soldier, who was an eyewitness to the US raid, described the chilling account of the military operation.
The US soldiers, the guard said, were technologically very advanced.
They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.
Interviewer: And then the battle began?
Security Guard: Yes, but it was a massacre. We were hundreds, but we had no chance. They were shooting with such precision and speed… it seemed like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute. We couldn’t do anything.
“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.”
🚨This account from a Venezuelan security guard loyal to Nicolás Maduro is absolutely chilling—and it explains a lot about why the tone across Latin America suddenly changed.
Security Guard: On the day of the operation, we didn't hear anything coming. We were on guard, but… pic.twitter.com/392mQuakYV
— Mike Netter (@nettermike) January 10, 2026
“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.”
However, the White House refused to confirm if it used a sonic weapon.
Despite no formal confirmation, experts believe that the US definitely has the expertise to develop such 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, notwithstanding the apocalyptic description by the Venezuelan soldier, ‘acoustic/sonic weapons’ have a long history.
The Creepy History Of Sonic Weapons
Sonic weapons have been around for decades, and their chilling history has often involved secret operations and spies.
Their long history goes back to the Second World War and Albert Speer, the Nazi minister of armaments.
Speer was reportedly trying to develop an ‘acoustic cannon.’ The idea was to use reflector dishes to narrow the sound into a targeted, narrow beam, which could cause death within a 100-yard radius.
However, there is no evidence that Speer was able to develop such a weapon.
The US military used a number of psychological warfare measures during the Vietnam War. One tactic was ‘Operation Wandering Soul’.
The US military was aware of Vietnamese beliefs surrounding death, with the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) having written a report in December 1969 outlining the types of ghosts that could be used in different psychological warfare campaigns.
The Vietnamese believed that those who have passed must receive a proper burial, lest they be made to wander the earth for all eternity and cause misfortune for the living. This is particularly true for those who have died a violent death away from home.
The US military engineers spent weeks recording ghostly sounds at a studio in Saigon. Among the sounds recorded were the cries of women and children, the banging of gongs, and howling noises.
These sounds were blasted on the battlefield to demoralize Vietnamese soldiers and encourage them to abandon the battlefield.
Operation Wandering Soul inspired the memorable scene in Apocalypse Now where attack helicopters blast Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.
Similarly, during its 1993 raid on the Branch Davidians’ compound in Texas, a religious cult, the FBI used “acoustic weapons,” light and high-volume music blended with sound effects – screeching seagulls, sirens, and dentist drills, as a form of psychological warfare.
A 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee reported on the CIA’s use of ‘sound disorientation techniques’ against Guantanamo detainees.
The US military also used Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) in Iraq. The LRAD is a device that can put out a highly directional “beam” of incredibly loud sound, up to 160 decibels (dB).
Besides the US military, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have used various acoustic weapons, such as ‘The Scream‘ and ‘Thunder Generator’, against Palestinian protesters.
The China Coast Guard (CCG) has used a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) to harass Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea.
Sonic and acoustic weapons have been used for a long time. However, if the US military has indeed used them during ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ this would mark a new technological leap, in which a ‘sonic boom’ is used ahead of the actual military operation to render your opponent operationally ineffective.
- 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.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
