USN Admiral Frank M. Bradley, commander of USSOCOM, has said, during his keynote address at SOF Week 2026, the January seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during Operation Absolute Resolve has set a new benchmark for how U.S. Special Operations Forces will operate in future conflicts.

"On the night of January 3, the world watched as Operation Absolute Resolve unfolded," Bradley said. "It has been, is and will be the most sophisticated integrated interagency joint force raid ever conducted. It has defined a new standard for power projection. That is the future of what SOF operations will look like."

Operation Absolute Resolve resulted in the seizure of Maduro and his wife and their transfer to the United States. Admiral Bradley called it a defining moment for the command.

Bradley framed the operation within a broader argument about how SOF must evolve its relationship with the joint force and not as a peripheral capability called upon for discrete missions, but as the connective tissue at the center of complex, integrated operations.

Bradley closed on a note of institutional confidence, describing a networked SOF force that presents adversaries not with an opportunity but with a wall.

"Peace through strength is deterrence that is the work we do every day," he said. "I am incredibly optimistic about our nation's future."