Operation Southern Spear

Operation Southern Spear is the US military's western-hemisphere naval and counter-trafficking campaign, named by the Defense Secretary in November 2025 and run by SOUTHCOM (US Southern Command). Its primary theatre to date has been Venezuela: in January 2026 US forces conducted a raid under Southern Spear that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The operation has also struck dozens of vessels in counter-narcotics actions across the region, and in May 2026 the USS Nimitz carrier strike group deployed to the Caribbean under its umbrella for the recurring Southern Seas 2026 exercise.

Southern Spear's relevance to Cuba is analytical rather than declared: SOUTHCOM has not publicly designated Cuba a Southern Spear target, and its Caribbean deployments are officially framed as presence and partnership operations. The precedent that matters is narrower: the same command, under the same campaign name, has already executed one forcible action against a regional government within the past six months, which is why a carrier flying Southern Spear colours cannot be read as fully routine by Havana.

CBS News reported on 16 July 2026 that Pentagon planners had reviewed a range of contingency options for possible action against Cuba, including an air assault by the 101st Airborne Division, though officials said an operation was 'not likely at the moment' with assets redirected to the restarted US-Iran war; the report did not attribute this planning to the Southern Spear framework specifically.