Two U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets were tracked circling the Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes on Tuesday, coming within 20 nautical miles of the coastline in what appeared to be a public show of force amid rising bilateral tensions.
Flight tracking data showed the jets, operating under the callsigns RHINO11 and RHINO12, began circling near Maracaibo—Venezuela’s second-largest city—around 1 p.m. local time.
They were preceded by an EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, which also flew patterns just north of the coast. Notably, all three aircraft only activated their transponders upon arrival near Venezuelan airspace, masking their origin and destination.
While a U.S. defense official described the flight as a “routine training” mission conducted in international airspace, analysts viewed it as deliberate signaling. Justin Crump of the risk consultancy Sibylline suggested the move was intended to “support the administration’s signaling and put pressure on the [Venezuelan] leadership.”
The incident is the latest in a series of U.S. aerial maneuvers near Venezuela since September, including flights by B-52 and B-1 bombers. However, the F/A-18s—multirole fighters capable of engaging ground and air targets—represent the closest and most visible such approach in recent months.
It follows a wave of U.S. maritime strikes in the Caribbean targeting vessels allegedly trafficking drugs from Venezuela, operations that have killed more than 80 people and drawn criticism over their legality.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the U.S. of using the campaign to destabilize his government. The tension was further underscored the day before the flight, when former President Donald Trump told Politico that Maduro’s days were “numbered” and did not rule out deploying U.S. troops.
By James Kisoo
