A U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker callsign DREW-11 supported aerial refueling of two B-1B Lancer bombers from the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas (callsigns BAT31 and BAT32), southeast of the Bahamas and in the Gulf of the Americas between 1:16 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. UTC on December 27, according to X posts by @HHunternight citing @AirAssets, @ArmchairAdml, @Flightwatcher1, @LatAmMilMVMTs, @thenewarea51, @SA_Defensa, @TheIntelFrog and @ViceAviator. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro urged the United States to negotiate directly with him, stating opposition leader MarÃa Corina Machado's project has failed and she will never come to power, in a video from VTV shared on X by @polianalitica at https://x.com/polianalitica/status/2004696177959469400 during the same 29-minute window ending at 1:45 a.m. UTC. The bomber refueling occurs amid U.S. military preparations for strikes on drug-production sites and trafficking routes inside Venezuela, as confirmed by President Donald Trump and cited in an X post by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn on December 26, according to prior reports. Flynn's post, shared over the past two hours before this window, tagged Trump and urged a 500-pound bomb strike near Maduro's location, following U.S. Air Force KC-46 tanker activity at McGuire AFB on December 25 and aircraft positioning at Homestead Air Reserve Base.
