The U.S. military had a very intense 2025, carrying out significant operations all over the globe in defense of the homeland.
In some instances, the places where the military carried out kinetic operations this year were continuations of missions, such as the department’s nonstop counterterrorism mission in the Middle East and Africa. In other cases, the military found itself carrying out operations in places it hadn’t before, like the Western Hemisphere.
In addition to the missions that the military has continued under President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the administration has reshaped the department, most pointedly with the move to rename it the Department of War unofficially. They have yet to ask Congress to change the name, but the effort showcases the administration’s messaging that they seek to shake things up at the department.
Caribbean Sea
The Trump administration has declared a war on drug cartels, which it characterizes as narco-terrorists, but does not believe the way the operations are being conducted rises to the level of requiring congressional approval.
“The single most serious threat to the United States from the Western Hemisphere is from transnational terrorist criminal groups, primarily focused on narco-trafficking.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a press conference on Dec. 19.
As a part of that effort, the U.S. military began in September targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea, which they said were drug smugglers carrying narcotics intended for the U.S. It has targeted more than two dozen vessels, killing more than 100 people in these operations to date. Operation Southern Spear has raised bipartisan concerns on Capitol Hill amid questions about the legalities of targeting these purported drug smugglers with lethal force.
The new policy is a significant deviation from the way the U.S. had handled drug interdiction for decades, where the Coast Guard would board vessels, seize any illegal drugs if they were found, and arrest those on board.
Adm. Alvin Holsey had been the commander of U.S. Southern Command, overseeing the operations targeting purported drug boats, but was asked to retire by Hegseth only about a year into his three-year term amid reported friction between them. A Pentagon official told the Washington Examiner earlier this month that Holsey “was not fired, he was asked to retire on good terms,” and he relinquished command to Air Force Lt. Gen. Evan L. Pettus.
Trump and Hegseth have prioritized defense of the homeland, and these strikes are one aspect of that broader objective.
Trump has discussed the possibility of carrying out operations targeting cartels in Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. Much of the current conversation has centered on Caracas and illegitimate leader Nicolás Maduro. The president said earlier this month that Maduro’s “days are numbered.”
US MILITARY DEPLOYMENTS NEAR VENEZUELA PORTEND SEIZURE OPERATIONS
The U.S. Navy currently has a buildup of military power in the Western Hemisphere, the largest in this area in decades, raising the questions of whether they could be tasked with carrying out more extensive operations in the region at some point.
U.S. forces have seized multiple Venezuelan-linked oil tanker earlier this month as well, as the administration continues to apply pressure to Maduro.
Middle East
The U.S. military carried out lethal kinetic operations in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Yemen this year.
The operations in Iraq and Syria were part of the defeat-ISIS mission, which has been ongoing for several years. The department was tragically reminded of the risks involved in the mission on Dec. 13, when a lone ISIS fighter ambushed and killed two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter in Palmyra, Syria. Trump vowed to retaliate for the attack and the military carried out Operation Hawkeye Strike on Dec. 19.
U.S. forces hit more than 70 targets at multiple locations using more than 100 precision munitions across central Syria with fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites. In addition to the operation, U.S. and local partner forces conducted 10 operations in Syria and Iraq resulting in the deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives.
U.S. and Syrian partner forces have conducted more than 80 operations over the last six months.
Dating back to the spring, in mid-March, the U.S. began Operation Rough Rider, targeting the Yemen-based Houthis, which had attacked dozens of commercial vessels transiting through the Red Sea off Yemen’s coasts over the previous two years. The high-intensity conflict lasted 52 days, and the U.S. hit over a thousand Houthi targets across Yemen.
This campaign was more aggressive than the handful of U.S. responses to the Houthis’ attacks against commercial vessels under the Biden administration.
The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group was in the region and very involved in Operation Rough Rider, but its deployment was not without incident. The carrier accidentally fired at two of its own aircraft, hitting one of them, collided with another vessel, lost another fighter aircraft while carrying out an evasive maneuver to stop an incoming Houthi-fired ballistic missile, and another aircraft went overboard when one of the arresting wires snapped.
A little more than a month after Trump announced the Houthis had agreed to a ceasefire, the U.S. carried out Operation Midnight Hammer targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Air Force used B-2 bombers to drop 14 massive ordnance penetrator bombs on the Fordow and Natanz facilities, while a nearby U.S. submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles at the Isfahan facility.
MOPs are 30,000-pound bombs, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal, and this was the first time the military had used them in the field of battle.
Pentagon officials repeatedly said the Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed, but also acknowledged an assessment that the strikes only set back their nuclear program by about 1 to 2 years.
This U.S. operation took place in one night and occurred amid the Israel-Iran war, which lasted for 12 days in June. In perfunctory retaliation, the Iranians fired 14 ballistic missiles at the U.S. military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after giving ample time for the U.S. to move its forces away from the base.
While no one was hurt in the Iranian attack, defending against it still required what Gen. Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said was “the largest single Patriot engagement in U.S. military history.”
Both conflicts with Iran and Yemen have simmered since those U.S. operations, whereas U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria routinely carry out defeat ISIS missions even as the latter country continues to find its new pathway following the collapse of the Assad regime about a year ago.
Africa
Similar to the U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. military has carried out more than a hundred strikes this year in Somalia in the name of counterterrorism, according to a spokesperson with U.S. Africa Command.
“AFRICOM has completed 111 strikes in Somalia” this year, as of Dec. 10, the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner, noting that it has targeted ISIS-Somalia and al-Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda.
“In northern Somalia, AFRICOM, alongside the Federal Government of Somalia and Somali Armed Forces, has conducted airstrikes to degrade ISIS-Somalia’s ability to threaten the U.S. Homeland, our forces, and our citizens abroad,” the spokesperson continued. “In southern Somalia, AFRICOM, also in close coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, has conducted airstrikes to enable partner forces’ ability to degrade al Shabaab. Our strategic approach to countering terrorism in Africa relies on trusted partnerships and collaboration grounded in and through shared security interests.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson described the department’s mission earlier this month as “narrowly scoped, intelligence-driven, counterterrorism operations.”
Several terrorist groups have expanded their foothold in various sub-Saharan African nations in recent years.
“Let me speak plainly about the threats we’re facing, especially in the Sahel region, including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. It is the flash point of prolonged conflict and growing instability. It is the epicenter of terrorism on the globe,” Gen. Michael Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, told reporters last May before his retirement.
Trump has also threatened Nigeria with U.S. military intervention due to increased violence, which the administration has described as Christian persecution.
In early November, Trump instructed the Department of War to “prepare for possible action” in Nigeria, threatening to “immediately stop all aid and assistance” and to come into the African nation “guns-a-blazing.”
While the Trump administration has portrayed the violence in Nigeria as Christian persecution, experts told the Washington Examiner it expands beyond that. Terrorist groups largely operate in the northern part of the country, while Christians tend to live in the middle part of the country and have come under the threat of violence not only from those terrorist groups but also from Muslim herders who move during the crop cycles.
