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Марія БровінськаWeapon
26 January 2026, 08:36
2026-01-26
Trump announced the "secret weapon" Discombobulator during the operation to capture Maduro. What is known
US President Donald Trump said in an interview with the New York Post that during a special operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the US military allegedly used a «secret weapon» called The Discombobulator. According to him, this device «made enemy equipment inoperable» when US helicopters entered Caracas on the night of January 3 to arrest Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
US President Donald Trump said in an interview with the New York Post that during a special operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the US military allegedly used a «secret weapon» called The Discombobulator. According to him, this device «made enemy equipment inoperable» when US helicopters entered Caracas on the night of January 3 to arrest Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Trump stressed that he could not reveal the technical details of the weapon: «A discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it,» he said, adding that he would like to say more about its operation.
The term discombobulator, writes CNN, comes from the English «to discombobulate» and roughly means «disorientator» or «confused.» Trump claimed that during the raid, even radars and air defense systems, including those that could launch Russian- or Chinese-made missiles, «didn’t work» and were unable to disrupt the operation.
There are currently no confirmed technical descriptions of such a device in open sources. Some analysts suggest that Trump could be combining several different technologies that the US military actually uses under one invented term. For example, these could be cyber defense tools or electronic warfare tools that disable enemy communication systems or radar networks, as well as existing non-lethal energy devices similar toActive Denial System — pulsed energy systems that are capable of creating a non-fatal feeling of warmth in people at a distance.
US officials have yet to confirm the existence or use of any one «secret weapon» called The Discombobulator. Instead, there are references to the use of cyber tools, electronic warfare, and other technologies that could partially explain the effects described by Trump.
Following the operation in Venezuela, there was circumstantial evidence that some of Maduro’s guards allegedly experienced effects similar to those caused by strong sound or energy waves that could disorient them, but these accounts have not been independently confirmed.
Recall that the raid on January 3 was accompanied by large-scale strikes on Venezuelan infrastructure, including radar and communications systems, to secure airspace for American helicopters and special forces. Maduro and his wife are currently facing federal charges in the United States, including drug trafficking and arms trafficking, and are being held in federal custody in New York.
In modern military operations, the US actively uses cyber tools to disable early warning systems, radars, communications, and air defense. This is not «hacking» in the classical sense, but military cyber operations integrated into an overall strike plan. This could explain Trump’s statement that «the enemy equipment simply did not work.»
The United States also has acoustic and directed energy systems that can temporarily disorient people in the area. They can cause severe discomfort, loss of coordination, nausea, or panic without causing direct physical harm. This is what some experts have attributed to the reports of a «strong sound wave» that has appeared after surgery, although there is no independent confirmation of such effects.
Separately mentioned is the Active Denial System — a non-lethal directed energy system that the US has been developing and testing for over a decade. It emits electromagnetic waves that heat the upper layer of a person’s skin and cause them to instinctively move away from the area of impact. ADS does not cause lasting damage, but is capable of quickly clearing an area without firing. Whether it was used during this operation — has not been officially confirmed.
