U-2 Spy Planes Are Flying Border Security Missions Air Force Confirms

By The War Zone | Created at 2025-03-14 23:01:27 | Updated at 2025-03-15 03:36:22 4 hours ago

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin has confirmed that U-2 Dragon Lady spy planes have been flying missions around the border with Mexico. The service’s top officer has also confirmed the use of RC-135V/W Rivet Joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft and drones, which TWZ has reported on previously, as part of still-increasing U.S. military support for southwestern border security efforts under President Donald Trump.

“As most of us head into the weekend, I want to thank our U-2, RC-135 & RPA [remotely piloted aircraft; drone] crews who are tirelessly providing unrivaled ISR support for @USNorthernCmd [U.S. Northern Command] at the border to restore sovereignty and protect American communities,” Allvin wrote in a post today on X, a screen shot of which is seen below. “Stay safe and thank you!”

CNN was first to report the use of U-2s in support of current operations along the southwestern border back in February, but citing unnamed officials. That story followed news that RC-135V/Ws, as well as U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes, were also flying surveillance missions around Mexico, including sorties over the Gulf of California.

In February, there were also reports that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was conducting surveillance flights inside Mexican airspace using MQ-9 Reaper drones. Authorities in Mexico subsequently confirmed that the U.S. government had been conducting aerial ISR to operations inside the country, and that this had helped with the arrest of at least two senior cartel members.

Just earlier this week, TWZ reached out to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base in California, the Air Force’s U-2 hub, for more information about the use of those aircraft specifically in support of current border security operations. Those queries were subsequently forwarded first to Air Combat Command (ACC) and then to NORTHCOM.

“At this time, we are not commenting about any specific ISR platforms related to southern border missions,” a NORTHCOM spokesperson told TWZ on Wednesday. “We do acknowledge that there is ISR supporting the mission, but again, we are not going to be specific about platforms.”

“We don’t discuss specifics on how we are using ISR assets to support DoD’s mission at the southern border,” the same spokesperson added today in response to a follow-up after Gen. Allvin made his post on X.

In general, the Air Force’s U-2s can be equipped with a wide array of different sensors, many of which could provide useful capabilities in support of border security operations. As TWZ wrote back in 2021 after a U-2 was tracked flying along the southwestern border on what the 9th Reconnaissance Wing said was a routine training mission:

“The Air Force’s U-2Ss can carry a variety of different sensor packages, including panoramic and other wide-angle cameras and radar imaging systems, and one of these aircraft could, conceivably offer a way to relatively quickly get a snapshot of border activity at a particular moment in time, even if [the U-2S with the serial number] 68-10329 did not in this particular case. That same imagery would also be useful for general mapping purposes, including in the creation of radar maps that can show details electro-optical or thermal imagery cannot. The U-2 can also carry communications intelligence gathering payloads.”

Imagery and intercepted communications could help in establishing so-called baseline “patterns of life” in a particular area, or even for a select individual or group of individuals. This, in turn, could aid in the refinement of intelligence gathering strategies, or even be used to plan and execute operations, including strikes and ground raids.

As TWZ has previously reported, U-2s are known to have flown sorties over and/or around Mexico on at least one other occasion, in 2009, as part of an operation nicknamed Equis Emerald. The purpose of those flights is unknown.

The official acknowledgment that U-2s are supporting current efforts along the border with Mexico comes as the U.S. military continues to expand its overall participation in this mission. Just today, NORTHCOM announced the formal activation of interagency Joint Task Force-Southern Border (JTF-SB) to oversee these operations.

“Under the direction of USNORTHCOM, Joint Task Force-Southern Border (JTF-SB) assumed the role of synchronizer of several USNORTHCOM activities and military forces from Joint Task Force-North (JTF-N). The transfer of authority, or TOA, to JTF-SB aligns efforts to seal the southern border and repel illegal activity under a single Joint Task Force responsible for full-scale, agile, and all-domain operations, which will allow for more effective and efficient DoD operations,” according to a press release. “Joint Task Force-North [JTF-N] will continue their core mission of detecting and monitoring transnational criminal organizations’ threats within and along approaches to the continental United States.”

You can read more about JTF-N, which has been the primary U.S. military entity responsible for coordinating support for border security operations since the early 2000s, in this past TWZ story.

“In early February, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, New York, deployed to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to establish the infrastructure necessary for the JTF-SB headquarters,” the release adds. “JTF-SB is commanded by Army Maj. Gen. Scott M. Naumann. Additionally, the task force has two deputy commanders: one from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and one from the U.S. Marine Corps.”

The U.S. military currently has 9,600 personnel either deployed or in the process of deploying to support the border security missions. In addition to fixed-wing aerial ISR assets, this support includes various types of helicopters and elements of Stryker Brigade Combat Team from the U.S. Army. Various branches have also contributed intelligence analysts on the ground, engineers, military police, and other personnel.

The U.S. military, at least publicly, has so far been primarily focused on activities on the American side of the southwestern border. However, there continued to be discussions about the potential for direct action against drug cartels inside Mexican territory, possible without cooperation or coordination with authorities in that country. In February, President Trump’s administration formally designated eight Latin American criminal groups, including multiple Mexican drug cartels, El Salvador’s MS-13, and Tren de Aragua in Venezuela, as foreign terrorist organizations. The designations expand the scope of actions that U.S. authorities could take against these organizations. You can read more about the challenges and potential for serious blowback from any U.S. military operations against Mexican drug cartels in this past TWZ feature.

For the U-2 fleet, the new mission along the border with Mexico comes amid the Air Force’s continued push to retire the type for good. Some members of Congress had pushed for provisions in the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2025 Fiscal Year that would have blocked divesting any U-2s. However, that does not look to have made it in the final version of the bill that was signed into law last year.

In the meantime, U.S. Aerial ISR assets, now confirmed to include U-2 spy planes, continue to prowl around Mexico as part of the U.S. military’s greatly expanded border security mission.

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