{"id":207567,"date":"2026-01-28T17:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/us-developed-non-kinetic-cell-ahead-of-venezuela-mission-to-push-cyber-operations\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T21:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:15:13","slug":"us-developed-non-kinetic-cell-ahead-of-venezuela-mission-to-push-cyber-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/us-developed-non-kinetic-cell-ahead-of-venezuela-mission-to-push-cyber-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"US developed \u2018non-kinetic\u2019 cell ahead of Venezuela mission to push cyber operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

US developed \u2018non-kinetic\u2019 cell ahead of Venezuela mission to push cyber operations<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nextgov.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/01\/us-developed-non-kinetic-cell-ahead-venezuela-mission-push-cyber-operations\/411029\/?orefu003dng-homepage-river<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-28 17:25:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.nextgov.com<\/a><\/p>\n

In the months leading up to an unprecedented operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from the capital of Caracas, the U.S. military developed a \u201cnon-kinetic effects cell\u201d that has helped push cyber operations to the forefront of specialized U.S. missions, a top official told lawmakers Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee\u2019s cybersecurity panel, Joint Staff Deputy Director for Global Operations Brig. Gen. R. Ryan Messer said the cell is \u201cdesigned to integrate, coordinate and synchronize all of our non-kinetics into the planning,\u00a0and then, of course, the execution of any operation globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Non-kinetic effects are military actions that influence or disrupt an adversary\u2019s systems without using physical force or causing direct destruction, rather than weapons like missiles or bombs. They often include cyber operations, electronic warfare and influence campaigns.<\/p>\n

The operation that ousted Maduro from Caracas included cyber effects that targeted radar and internet, as well as the city\u2019s power grid, which caused a temporary blackout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple U.S. spy agencies stood up crisis action teams that provided intelligence to Special Operations Command and Southern Command throughout the operations, a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter previously told Nextgov\/FCW. The NSA oversaw geolocation support to gather intelligence that aided the operation and monitored other signals that help operators determine if a foreign adversary orders troop movements or seeks to activate radar, the official added.<\/p>\n

The development of the cell helps highlight a broader shift toward integrating cyber and other non-kinetic tools into U.S. military operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that we\u2019ve now pulled cyber operators to the forefront,\u201d Messer said.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gen. William Hartman, acting director of Cyber Command and the NSA, and Katie Sutton, the Pentagon\u2019s cyber policy chief, also testified, describing how the cell would operate…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US developed \u2018non-kinetic\u2019 cell ahead of Venezuela mission to push cyber operations https:\/\/www.nextgov.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/01\/us-developed-non-kinetic-cell-ahead-venezuela-mission-push-cyber-operations\/411029\/?orefu003dng-homepage-river Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.nextgov.com\/media\/img\/cd\/2026\/01\/28\/012826CaracasNG\/open-graph.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-207567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207569,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207567\/revisions\/207569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}