Inside Operation Absolute Resolve: US Elite Forces Capture Nicolás Maduro

Operation Absolute Resolve: A Three-Phase Mission

• 🎯 The operation to capture Nicolás Maduro was complex and audacious, broken down into three key phases: intelligence gathering, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), and the final helicopter assault.
• 💡 Phase 1: Intelligence Gathering was critical, relying on human intelligence (informants/assets) and signals intelligence.
• 🧠 A CIA plant within the Venezuelan government provided crucial pattern-of-life intelligence, detailing Maduro's behaviors, movements, and communications.

Advanced Intelligence Capabilities

• 🛰️ The RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone played a vital role, likely providing both signals intelligence (listening to communications) and imagery intelligence (visual and thermal tracking).
• 📡 Signals intelligence involved listening into communications and triangulating Maduro's location, as well as identifying his inner circle and key discussion topics.

Suppressing Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD)

• ✈️ A major obstacle was the S-300 missile system, a Russian-made threat with powerful radar.
• 💥 The EA-18G Growler aircraft was used for SEAD, employing jamming capabilities to disrupt S-300 radar and launching AGM-88 HARM missiles (anti-radiation missiles) to target active S-300 systems.
• 🔄 This created a cat-and-mouse game where S-300 operators had to risk radar activation to be targeted by HARM missiles.

Helicopter Assault and Threats

• 🚢 The operation utilized a mother ship, the MV Ocean Trader, as a center of gravity for force projection, launching helicopters like the MH-60M Blackhawk and MH-47G Chinook.
• 🚁 The MH-47G Chinook helicopters were key, equipped with terrain-following and weather radar for low-level night flying.
• ⚠️ The most significant threat identified was the man-portable air-defense (MANPAD) threat, specifically the Russian-made SA-24 Igla, of which Venezuela had a large number.
• ⛰️ Pilots also had to contend with terrain, power lines, and high ground, a threat known as controlled flight into terrain.

Infiltration, Exfiltration, and Intelligence Application

• 🪖 The US forces meticulously recreated Maduro's compound, Fort Tiuna, for Close Quarters Battle (CQB) training, ensuring operators knew every square centimeter.
• 🚁 Infiltration likely involved ropes for Delta Force operators to descend from MH-47G Chinooks directly over the target or an offset landing approach.
• 📍 After capturing Maduro, the exfiltration plan involved flying him north to the USS Iwo Jima, then to Guantanamo Bay, and finally to New York to face charges.