US Attacks Venezuela, Captures Maduro

Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. (Trump Truth Social photo)

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

The US military launched an assault over the weekend on the Venezuelan capital of Caracas that took leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife into American custody and has set the stage for the US to run the South American nation, reports The Washington Post. The mission, dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve, involved “more than 150 aircraft — bombers, fighters, intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance [aircraft], rotary wing,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine said, reports Breaking Defense.

Maduro’s presumed successor, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, is possibly in Russia, reports Fox News on MSN.

The Associated Press explains how the mission to capture Maduro was carried out.

The Washington Post editorial board says that the US decision to capture Maduro is “one of the boldest moves a president has made in years, and the operation was an unquestionable tactical success.” The New York Times editorial board condemned President Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela as “illegal and unwise,” reports Daily Beast on MSN. Reaction to the US operation has been mixed across Latin America, reports Los Angeles Times.

The CIA was behind a drone strike Dec. 18 at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, reports Military.com. This is the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes in September.

As of Jan. 2, the Trump administration and US military have disclosed 35 strikes, killing at least 114 people, reports Air Force Times. Boat strikes continued against alleged drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean on Dec. 30 killed three people and left multiple survivors, reports The Hill. US Southern Command said the US military targeted three vessels, which were operating international waters. US Southern Command forces attacked two more boats on Dec. 31, killing five people who were allegedly smuggling drugs, AP News reports.

Trump announced shortly before the holidays that the US Navy will pursue a new class of battleships as part of the White House’s “Golden Fleet” concept, reports Breaking Defense. Trump suggested at least one of the “Trump class” ships would be named “USS Defiant.”

Lockheed Martin was paid $1.7 billion despite a poor readiness rate for its F-35 fighter jets, reports Defense News. The Department of Defense did not consistently hold the defense contractor accountable for F-35 poor sustainability performance in its 2024 contract, according to a DoD Office of the Inspector General’s report.

The US is expected to allocate $8.6 billion to Boeing for the sale of 25 F-15 fighter jets to Israel, reports Fox Business on MSN. The contract was secured as part of the F-15 Israel program.

A Government Accountability Office report found major issues with the way the US Navy conducts fire safety prevention and contractor oversight for ships during maintenance, reports Navy Times. According to the Dec. 17 GAO report, staffing shortages and the service’s methods for ensuring contractors comply with safety standards are the biggest hurdles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a potential peace agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is “90 percent ready,” reports Politico. Zelenskyy addressed his nation in a New Year’s address. He also stressed his position on ending the conflict: “Either the world stops Russia’s war, or Russia drags the world into its war.”

Trump issued a warning to Iran’s government on Friday: the US is “locked and loaded” and ready to intervene if the authorities kill protesters in nationwide demonstrations against the clerical regime’s economic mismanagement, reports Politico.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is engaged in a “full-fledged war with America, Israel, and Europe,” raising new tensions months after the Trump administration carried out airstrikes on Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities, reports Defense News. The US military launched a series of coordinated bombing attacks in June against three Iranian nuclear facilities, NPR reported at the time.

China’s push to modernize its military means the American homeland is vulnerable to threats that “directly threaten Americans’ security,” according to a new Pentagon report, reports Breaking Defense.

A fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act provision calls for a study on Reserve force mobilization “to assess the capability of the Armed Forces to respond to a high-intensity contingency in the Indo-Pacific region,” reports Military Times. The new study will be modeled on a 21-day exercise, conducted in 1978, called “Nifty Nugget,” which brought together two dozen military commands and did not go well.

Trump has ended National Guard deployments in Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; and Portland, OR, reports Politico. This came after a US Supreme Court 6-3 ruling that the president’s justification for sending Guard personnel to Chicago was not sufficient.

The US Army is creating a dedicated artificial intelligence and machine-learning career field for officers as it pushes to integrate AI into its operations, reports Federal News Network. A new 49B specialty establishes AI and machine learning as an area of concentration for Army officers, a move the service says will help accelerate its transformation into a more data-centric and AI-enabled force.

Syracuse University ROTC students are helping the military defend against AI deepfakes, reports Navy Times. For the school, the work dates back to 2020, when the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications got an $830,958 subcontract agreement from DARPA to develop tools to combat the spread of fake news.

Maryland ended 2025 with almost 15,000 fewer federal jobs than it had at the start of the year, according to the latest estimates from the Maryland Department of Labor, reports Maryland Matters. The state has lost about 9% of its federal workforce since January 2025.

Despite a spike in health care concerns, immigration and broader worries about rising costs remain pressing issues, according to a December poll, reports AP News. Americans are also less confident that the government will be able to make progress on the important problems facing the country in 2026, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. About 66% of US adults say they are “slightly” or “not at all confident,” down from 58% last year.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is in the process of opening four new Veterans Villages as the organization aims to create housing for homeless veterans in more than a dozen cities nationwide by 2026, reports Military.com. The newest Veterans Village is in Denver, CO, where the foundation will renovate a hotel into 120 units of single-occupancy affordable housing for vets following groundbreakings of Veterans Villages in Buffalo, NY; Detroit, MI; and North Charleston, SC. The four projects will create more than 400 homes for veterans in these metro areas.

World War II veteran Dominic Critelli, 104, displayed his musical talent late last month when he played the National Anthem before the puck dropped for the New York Islanders vs. New York Rangers hockey game at UBS Arena on Long Island, reports Military.com. Watch Critelli’s performance in this NHL video.

The US Department of Interior has ordered a 90-day suspension of work for the offshore wind project near Virginia Beach, Bay Journal. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project consists of 176 turbines and three offshore wind substations that will generate 2.6 GW of electricity, or power up to 660,000 homes. The project is two-thirds complete and was scheduled to be operational by the end of March.

Contracts awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, from December 24, 2025, through January 2, 2026:

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $97,680,000 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-24-C-2106) for additional long-lead-time material for the accomplishment of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH). Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by September 2026. Funding will not be obligated at time of award. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., Taunton, Massachusetts (HQ072726DE003); Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland (HQ072726DE004); Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia (HQ072726DE005); Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California (HQ072726DE006); DRS Network & Imaging Systems LLC, Melbourne, Florida (HQ072726DE008); HII Mission Technologies Corp., McLean, Virginia (HQ072726DE009); Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Mississippi (HQ072726DE010); L3Harris Technologies Inc., Palm Bay, Florida (HQ072726DE011); The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts (HQ072726DE012); and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (HQ072726DE013), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price, and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. This multiple award contract has a base ordering period of five years with two option periods, three years and two years respectively, to establish a 10 year ordering period for the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) Advanced Technology Support Program (ATSP). The contracts share a programmatic ceiling of $25,357,000,000. Fiscal 2026 funds in the amount $5,000 per task order, for a total $65,000, are being obligated at the time of award. The ATSP V contract procures engineering development that rapidly fields emerging technologies, quickly closes capability gaps, and keeps the Department of Defense ahead of electronics obsolescence issues. This multiple award contract was competitively procured with 17 offers received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order. DMEA McClellan, California, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is awarded a $60,068,310 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-20-C-5392) for engineering integration, technical support, and depot operations in support of the MK 41 Vertical Launching System electronic systems and computer programs. This action includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this action to $144,680,000. This action combines purchases for the Navy (60%); and the governments of Japan (20%); and Australia (20%), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey (60%); Ventura, California (16%); San Diego California (10%); Seattle, Washington (4%); Mayport, Florida (4%); Norfolk, Virginia (4%); and Virginia Beach, Virginia (2%), and is expected to be completed by December 2027. Fiscal 2026 Defense-wide research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,578,877 (38%); fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $925,000 (22%); FMS (Japan) funds in the amount of $849,867 (20%); and FMS (Australia) funds in the amount of $849,867 (20%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

BAE Systems – Maritime Solutions Norfolk, Virginia, is awarded a $10,398,203 firm-fixed-price modification for additional mission critical work to previously awarded contract (N00024-25-C-4412) for the USS Laboon (DDG 58) fiscal year 2025 Dry-dock Selected Restricted Availability. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by July 2026. Fiscal 2025 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $10,398,203 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

PAE Applied Technologies LLC, Chantilly, Virginia, was awarded a $116,955,816 firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials contract for operations, maintenance and repair of real property; maintenance and repair of installed building equipment and equipment-in-place; minor construction; grounds maintenance; snow, ice and sand removal; pest control; environmental services; and refuse removal. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2031. 409th Contracting Support Brigade, Kaiserslautern, Germany, is the contracting activity (W564KV-26-D-A001).

Amentum Services, Chantilly, Virginia, was awarded a $10,645,952 cost-no-fee, time-and-materials modification (P00074) to contract W58RGZ-25-C-0004 to provide global aviation maintenance services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $158,855,989. Work will be performed in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; Fort Hood, Texas; and South Korea, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2026. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance, Army funds; fiscal 2025 Big Beautiful Bill funds; and fiscal 2025 aircraft procurement, Army funds totaling $10,645,952 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

TAQT1 LLC, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $67,716,387 cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for programmatic support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2031. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-26-D-A004).

Piepenbrock Government Services GmbH + Co. KG, Eschborn, Germany (FA5613-26-D-0002); Geiger FM Grunservice GmbH, Dietmannsried, Germany (FA5613-26-D-0003); Centerra Integrated Services GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany (FA5613-26-D-0006); Amentum Services Inc., Chantilly, Virginia, United States (FA5613-25-D-0009); and Centerra Integrated Services GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany (FA5613-25-D-0005), were awarded a combined ceiling of $235,400,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract for services. This contract provides for a full range of commercial service-based requirements for the 86th Civil Engineer Group including the following: Custodial Services, Grounds Maintenance, Total Facility Maintenance and Military Family Housing Maintenance for the Kaiserslautern Military Community. Work will be performed within the Federal Republic of Germany and is expected to be completed by Dec. 29, 2035. These contracts were competitive acquisitions and seven offers were received. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of €5000 are being obligated at the time of award. The 700th Contracting Squadron, Kapaun Air Station, Germany is the contracting activity.