A trio of US B-52H Stratofortress bombers was spotted flying near Venezuelan airspace in what some analysts are calling a bold display of military power.
Flight tracking data shows all three bombers departed from Louisiana‘s Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, starting at 2:50am ET.
They flew through the Gulf of America, passing between Mexico and Cuba, before approaching Venezuela and circling over the Caribbean Sea.
The mysterious missions come as President Donald Trump is ramping up intense pressure on Venezuela’s dictatorship.
This effort includes a $50 million bounty on Nicolás Maduro, strikes on drug-running vessels leaving the country, and a significant military buildup in the region.
Officials have yet to clarify why the bombers were deployed on Wednesday, leaving their mission shrouded in uncertainty.
The move followed warnings from Venezuela that the US military might be preparing for a full-scale invasion.
The bomber is capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet. It was built during the Cold War to serve as a long-range strategic bomber capable of delivering massive payloads anywhere in the world.
Flight tracking service Flightradar24, along with multiple OSINT social media posts, identified the trio of bombers under the BUNNY01/02/03 mission set, with tail numbers 61-0010, 60-0052 and 60-0033.
The bombers were reportedly flying from the US mainland toward the Caribbean at medium altitude.
OSINTdefender, an Open Source Intelligence Monitor focused on Europe and Conflicts across the World, said on X: ‘Bombers with the 2nd Bomb Wing stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana flew an extremely unusual route earlier today, flying over the Gulf of America, through the Yucatán Channel and over the Southern Caribbean to the south of Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
‘The flight was likely part of the Trump Administration’s ongoing campaign against drug trafficking off the coast of Venezuela, as a ‘show of force’ against the Cartels in the country, as well as the Maduro Regime.’
The missions come less than a day since Trump announced that the Secretary of War ordered the ‘lethal kinetic’ on a narco-terrorist vessel off the shores of Venezuela.
‘The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,’ Trump wrote to his followers on Truth Social.
‘No US Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!’
Venezuela’s UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada held an emergency meeting with the UN Security Council last Friday, warning US strikes on its boats were the first steps before an invasion.
