Videos suggest stealthy Air Force drone flew recon for Maduro capture

The fleet of aircraft that took part in the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolá s Maduro included bombers, fighters and surveillance aircraft from multiple services — and reportedly one of the Air Force’s secretive recon drones.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a Saturday news briefing with President Donald Trump that more than 150 aircraft took off from 20 locations on land and sea to support Maduro’s capture.

The airborne element of Operation Absolute Resolve, as the U.S. government dubbed the mission, included F-22 Raptors, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18 Hornets and B-1 Lancer bombers, Caine said. It also included E/A-18 Growlers, a Hornet variant that specializes in electronic warfare, E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and other helicopters and support aircraft, Caine said.

Caine also said the force included “numerous remotely piloted drones.” Aircraft from the Air Force, Air National Guard, Navy and Marine Corps took part in the operation, he said.

“This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do,” Caine said. “It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force, and the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission. An extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get in an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.”

“Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission, and failure is never an option for America’s joint force,” Caine said. “Those in the air over Caracas last night were willing to give their lives for those on the ground and in the helicopters.”

When asked what type of drones took part in the operation, the Air Force referred Defense News’ inquiries to the Pentagon’s press office, which declined to comment on its drone presence in the area, citing operation security concerns.

But soon after the operation, videos taken by aviation observers began appearing online showing the Air Force’s stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance drone returning to Puerto Rico.

The War Zone highlighted a pair of videos purportedly showing the RQ-170’s dawn return to base. Aviation Week editor Brian Everstine also noted, in a December social media post, that Air Forces Southern had posted — and soon took offline — a photograph of an airman wearing patches showing the RQ-170 and the insignia of the 432nd Wing, which flies the Sentinel, suggesting it may be operating in that area.

In Caine’s description of the operation’s airborne component, he made multiple references to drone aircraft and surveillance coverage that could have encompassed the Air Force’s RQ-170, a low-observable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone created by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, or Skunk Works. The drone was regularly flown over Afghanistan during the war there, where it earned the nickname the Beast of Kandahar.

Weather in the region had presented a challenge for the mission, Caine said, but on Friday night broke “just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through.”

Helicopters bearing the extraction force approached Venezuela from about 100 feet above sea level, Caine said, while aircraft overhead protected them. The airborne force struck and disabled multiple Venezuelan air defense systems to ensure the helicopters could safely proceed.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on May 11, 2014, sits next to a captured U.S. RQ-170 drone that crashed in Iran on December 2011. (AFP via Iranian leader's website)

The extraction team took fire as they helicoptered in to Maduro’s Caracas compound — with one helicopter struck but remaining airborne — and the team moved to apprehend him and his wife, Caine said.

Fighter aircraft and drones overhead provided both suppressive fire, to allow the extraction force to withdraw, and intelligence updates. Caine said “there were multiple self-defense engagements” as the force withdrew, bringing Maduro and his wife to the USS Iwo Jima.

Iran downed an RQ-170 over its territory in 2011, allegedly using a cyberattack, and then reverse engineered the technology to produce its own knockoff variants of the drone.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

参与美军抓捕委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗行动的飞机机队包括来自多个军种的轰炸机、战斗机和侦察机，据报道还有空军的一架秘密侦察无人机。

参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军在周六与唐纳德·特朗普总统举行的新闻发布会上表示，超过 150 架飞机从陆地和海上 20 个地点起飞，支援抓捕马杜罗的行动。

凯恩表示，美国政府将此次行动命名为“绝对决心行动”，其空中力量包括F-22“猛禽”战斗机、F-35联合攻击战斗机、F/A-18“大黄蜂”战斗机和B-1“枪骑兵”轰炸机。此外，还包括E/A-18“咆哮者”电子战飞机（一种专门用于电子战的“大黄蜂”战斗机改型）、E-2“鹰眼”预警机以及其他直升机和支援飞机。

凯恩还表示，此次行动动用了“大量遥控无人机”。他说，空军、空中国民警卫队、海军和海军陆战队的飞机都参与了此次行动。

凯恩说：“这是一次只有美国才能完成的大胆行动。它需要我们联合部队内部极高的精准度和协同作战能力，而‘协同作战’一词远不足以概括这项任务的复杂性。这次撤离行动极其精准，涉及150多架飞机在西半球各地紧密协调起飞，所有飞机在时间和地点上齐聚一堂，层层叠加，最终达成一个共同目标：在保持战术奇袭的同时，将一支拦截部队送入加拉加斯市中心。”

凯恩说：“这台运转良好的机器中任何一个部件出现故障都会危及整个任务，而对于美国的联合部队来说，失败绝不是一个选项。昨晚在加拉加斯上空作战的人员愿意为地面和直升机上的官兵献出生命。”

当被问及参与此次行动的无人机类型时，空军将《防务新闻》的询问转给了五角大楼新闻办公室，后者以行动安全为由，拒绝就其在该地区的无人机部署发表评论。

但行动结束后不久，航空观察员拍摄的视频开始在网上流传，显示美国空军的隐形 RQ-170 哨兵侦察无人机返回波多黎各。

《战区》网站重点报道了两段据称显示RQ-170无人机黎明时分返回基地的视频。《航空周刊》编辑布莱恩·埃弗斯汀在12月的一篇社交媒体帖子中也提到，南方空军曾发布过一张照片（但很快又将其删除），照片中一名空军士兵佩戴着印有RQ-170无人机和第432联队（该联队装备RQ-170“哨兵”无人机）徽章的臂章，这表明RQ-170可能正在该地区执行任务。

凯恩在描述此次行动的空中部分时，多次提及无人机和监视覆盖范围，其中可能包括空军的RQ-170无人机。RQ-170是由洛克希德·马丁公司先进研发项目部（又称“臭鼬工厂”）研制的一种低可探测性情报、监视和侦察无人机。在阿富汗战争期间，该无人机经常飞越阿富汗上空，并因此获得了“坎大哈野兽”的绰号。

凯恩说，该地区的天气给这次任务带来了挑战，但周五晚上天气“刚刚好转，开辟出一条只有世界上最熟练的飞行员才能通过的道路”。

凯恩说，载有撤离部队的直升机从海平面以上约100英尺的高度接近委内瑞拉，上空有飞机掩护。空降部队攻击并瘫痪了委内瑞拉的多套防空系统，以确保直升机能够安全撤离。

2014年5月11日，伊朗最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊坐在一架缴获的美国RQ-170无人机旁，该无人机于2011年12月在伊朗坠毁。（法新社，图片来自伊朗最高领袖网站）

凯恩说，营救小组乘坐直升机进入马杜罗位于加拉加斯的住所时遭到枪击——其中一架直升机被击中但仍能飞行——随后该小组采取行动逮捕他和他的妻子。

战斗机和无人机在空中盘旋，既提供了压制火力掩护撤离部队，也提供了情报更新。凯恩说，在撤离过程中，“发生了多次自卫交火”，最终马杜罗和他的妻子被送上了“硫磺岛”号航空母舰。

2011 年，伊朗在其领土上击落了一架 RQ-170 无人机，据称使用了网络攻击，然后对该技术进行了逆向工程，生产出了自己的仿制无人机。

斯蒂芬·洛西是《防务新闻》的空战记者。他此前曾在《空军时报》报道领导层和人事问题，并在Military.com网站报道五角大楼、特种作战和空战。他曾前往中东报道美国空军的行动。