As the United States has ratcheted up pressure on Cuba, including indicting Raúl Castro, the regime's power broker behind the scenes and former chair of the Council of State, in a U.S. court, an analysis emerged that the Pentagon is carrying out preliminary preparations for an invasion of Cuba.
On the 27th, Politico reported, "The Pentagon has spent months deploying the troops and weapons needed for a military strike on Cuba, and now only President Donald Trump's final signoff remains," adding, "Outside the Middle East, the massively reinforced U.S. Navy presence in the Caribbean allows the United States to act immediately."
Within the Trump administration, remarks hinting at the need for military action against Cuba have followed. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a full Cabinet meeting that Cuba is "in serious trouble," and that "having a failed state 90 miles off our coast is a threat to U.S. national security." He also said last week that "Cuba is allowing Russian and Chinese intelligence services to operate in the country," stressing that Cuba has been a threat to U.S. security.
The United States has deployed major strategic assets in large numbers near the Caribbean for months. On the day the Department of Justice indicted Castro, U.S. Southern Command posted on social media (SNS) a video announcing that a carrier strike group, including the Nimitz aircraft carrier and the gridley-class destroyer, had been deployed to the Caribbean. Mark Cancian, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said, "The Nimitz appears to be positioned primarily for deterrent effect, but it could be committed to military operations if necessary."
According to flight-tracking sites, U.S. advanced surveillance drones and reconnaissance aircraft have also been operating for months in airspace near Cuba. The Kearsarge-class amphibious assault ship, which can carry about 2,500 Marines, and its escort ships are preparing additional deployment off the Virginia coast and are said to be possible replacements for some vessels scheduled to return.
However, the long-term operations of major warships deployed to the Caribbean are seen as a burden. Many of the ships have been at sea for 10 months, far exceeding the typical six- to seven-month deployment. As a result, defense officials are worried about crew fatigue and force depletion, and Politico reported this is adding to the load on the U.S. Navy, which is also conducting an operation to blockade Iranian vessels in the Arabian Sea.
In fact, the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford recently returned after an 11-month long deployment shuttling between Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The Nimitz, which had been slated to enter the decommissioning process, has had its service extended by the U.S. Navy through 2027.
An anonymous military official told Politico, "Such back-to-back long deployments accumulate strain over time," and "if you leave ships out there for too long, you will see more long-term issues arise during maintenance and repairs after they return to port."