Trump’s secret war: three shadowy US planes now based in El Salvador

El Salvador is hosting three US military aircraft including a deadly gunship. The planes are likely being used to track and kill so-called ‘narco-terrorists’ as Donald Trump’s dirty war in the Caribbean continues. Satellite imagery published by The New York Times (NYT) show the aircraft waiting at the Cooperative Security Location (CSL) Comalapa, a US military outpost attached to El Salvador’s largest airport.

As well as an AC-130J Ghostrider, a P-8A Poseidon and a C-40 Clipper can been seen at the location:

New: The U.S. Air Force and Navy have started flying counternarcotics missions out of El Salvador’s main international airport, in a dramatic expansion of the military buildup in the Caribbean. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/0YERNtNEWd

— Riley Mellen (@riley_mellen) November 7, 2025

The country’s authoritarian president Nayib Bukele is a close Trump ally. He has helped Trump by accepting migrants detained in the US into the country’s jails.

The US has been pouring military assets into the Caribbean and carrying out airstrikes at sea since September. The Trump administration says it is fighting a ‘war’ with drug cartels. Critics outright reject this claim and question the legal basis of the killings.

Trump carries out fresh strikes in east Pacific

Two more airstrikes were carried out in the eastern Pacific on 9 November, according to US defence secretary Pete Hegseth:

Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, two lethal kinetic strikes were conducted on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.

These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and… pic.twitter.com/ocUoGzwwDO

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 10, 2025

One Latin America-focused open source investigator said footage of latest strike was consistent with the Ghostrider’s capabilities:

Clearly the work of the AC-130J that’s flying out of CSL Comalapa in El Salvador. https://t.co/wvPOBFfEO2

— LatAmMilMovements (@LatAmMilMVMTs) November 10, 2025

The El Salvador deployment is the first known example of the US basing assets in its ‘drug’ war in a foreign country. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are hosting the US military, but these are effective US colonies. The NYT’s report said of CSL Comalapa:

The outpost, which was established in 2000 to support counternarcotics missions, hosted Navy surveillance aircraft until 2022. Since then, satellite imagery shows, the base has been used little, with only occasional Department of Homeland Security aircraft visible there”

The Poseidon aircraft’s primary function is surveillance, but it can also launch missiles and torpedos. The C-40 clipper, which is unmarked, is rarely seen and altogether more mysterious.

The NYT said:

Little is known about its purpose, but flight-tracking data has shown it occasionally flying with surveillance aircraft. It is rarely spotted in public and its deployment to El Salvador, especially alongside an attack plane, is highly unusual.

And they added:

A Times analysis of publicly available radio messages between military aircraft and air traffic controllers found that the P-8A reconnaissance aircraft had flown at least six missions out of El Salvador. The attack aircraft and the Air Force jet have each flown at least one mission, the radio communications show.

The Ghostrider is essentially a flying artillery platform which can devastate targets with its range of side-mounted weaponry:

The NYT could not confirm if the aircraft were being used but said:

their deployment to the outpost coincided with an increase in attacks on targets in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which borders El Salvador.

Ocean Trader spotted

The MC Ocean Trader is the US’s secretive special forces mothership. Made to merge in with civilian shipping, the vessel appears rarely and details of its specifications are shrouded in mystery. However, satellites picked the Trader up in the Caribbean on 8 November:

🔎🇺🇸Back on Station: Special Ops Mothership Re-emerges, Escorted, Near Venezuela’s Flank

OSINT Confirmed (Nov 8): The clandestine MV Ocean Trader (Special Operations Mothership) is back in the southern Caribbean, spotted ~80 km west of 🇬🇩Grenada.

Rapid Turnaround: She was last… pic.twitter.com/J2Oj9bI1CC

— MT Anderson (@MT_Anderson) November 8, 2025

Task and Purpose produced a useful primer on the Ocean Trader which details what is known about her.

One former naval officer told Task and Purpose:

If the ship is in the Caribbean and hosting special forces, it is clearly supporting the operation to interdict the Cartel drug boats.

The legal thinktank and journal Just Security has assembled a full timeline of events since Trump first started considering strikes in July.

While the US continues to frame its attacks as part of an anti-cartel campaign, critics say Trump’s aim is clearly to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. In October, former first-term Trump diplomat James Storey told Politico “there are not enough assets for an invasion.” However, he said:

there are enough ‘exquisite assets’ on site that could overwhelm the air defenses of the country, take out the Air Force, take out the navy, potentially decapitate the government if that were a decision that he decided to take.

Venezuela is not a major drug producing country. But it is a major oil producer. And Trump seems determined to assert himself in what the US considers its own back yard.

Featured image via the Canary