The name Operation Southern Spear has a curious background: it started as an immersive role-playing game created in 2017 by Centurion Combat Simulations, then reemerged in January 2025 as a U.S. Navy technology operation to test robotic and autonomous systems in the fight against drug trafficking, and finally, it was brought back in November 2025 as a politically-military operation announced by the Secretary of War to remove drug traffickers from the hemisphere. This coincidence reveals how fiction, innovation, and real strategy intertwine in building military narratives.
Written by: La Tabla / Data Journalism Platform 14 NOV 2025
The military operation announced last night by the U.S. Secretary of War, titled Operation Southern Spear, is not a new concept. The name carries three distinct backgrounds—one playful, another technological, and now a political-military one—that shows how narratives of fiction, tests of innovation, and strategic decisions can be interwoven.
1. The playful origin: Centurion Combat Simulations (2017)
In 2017, the company Centurion Combat Simulations, LLC launched an immersive role-playing game of the same name. The plot placed players in a hemispheric conflict:
– A Republic of Copán, a pro-U.S. democracy covering almost all of Central America.
– A Federation of Bolivarian States (FEB), a socialist bloc made up of nine nations in northern South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Panama, and the Guianas).
The game presented tactical and narrative dilemmas where participants had to face insurgencies, drug trafficking, and covert operations, in a setting that mingled geopolitics and fiction.
2. The technological operation: January 2025
At the beginning of this year, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, under the coordination of Southern Command, launched an operation with the same name.
According to the official announcement from the Navy, Operation Southern Spear aims to “operationalize a heterogeneous mix of robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking,” in the words of Cmdr. Foster Edwards, director of the Hybrid Fleet of the 4th Fleet.
The operation deploys:
– Long-endurance robotic surface vessels.
– Small-sized robotic interceptor boats.
– Vertical take-off and landing robotic air vessels (VTOL drones).
These systems integrate with Coast Guard cutters and command centers of the Joint Interagency Task Force South, aiming to enhance maritime domain awareness and improve drug interdiction techniques. Rear Adm. Carlos Sardiello, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. Fourth Fleet, emphasized that Southern Spear is “the next step in our Hybrid Fleet Campaign,” underscoring that these operations increase regional collaboration and strengthen maritime sovereignty.
3. The political-military operation: November 2025
The third appearance of the name came last night when the Secretary of War announced a new Operation Southern Spear. This time, the stated objective is to “remove drug traffickers from the hemisphere,” in a context of rising tensions with Venezuela and the region.
The official narrative presents it as a mission of hemispheric defense, but its coincidence with the title of the role-playing game and the technological operation in January raises questions about the symbolic construction behind the strategy.
A revealing intersection
The case of Southern Spear illustrates how one name can migrate from fiction to military practice. What began as a narrative exercise in 2017 transitioned through a technological trial in 2025 and is now evolving into a high-impact political operation.
Beyond coincidence, this intersection reveals the permeability between worlds: that of simulation, innovation, and real politics. In all of them, the hemisphere appears as a conflict board, with drug trafficking, ideological blocks, and geopolitical tensions as protagonists.