U.S. military lays groundwork for potential action around Cuba

The Pentagon is quietly lining up backup forces that could support a Southern Command mission covering Cuba, according to officials who described an internal Army Reserve message to CBS News. The communication itself never mentions the island, but multiple sources said it reflects ongoing contingency planning focused there. Reserve headquarters asked subordinate commands to report by September 25 whether six types of units, including a combat sustainment support battalion, an engineer battalion, an expeditionary sustainment command, a medical brigade, a surgical detachment, and a military police brigade, might be ready to deploy sometime in the coming three to four months. No orders have gone out, and the message does not say where forces would go or what mission they would support. A Southern Command spokesperson declined to discuss specifics, citing operational security, while the Army Reserve did not respond to a request for comment.

The move follows months of escalating pressure on Havana. CBS News has previously reported on undersea reconnaissance near Cuba, heightened readiness for U.S. airpower that was never used, and internal discussions of options including a large-scale Army air assault led by the 101st Airborne Division. Separately, the U.S. military has killed more than 230 people in roughly 70 strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, actions some legal experts call unlawful. President Donald Trump told the United Nations this week that Cuba's government "will fall," while Secretary of State Marco Rubio is described as "deep into negotiations" with Havana.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News →