U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane

[rangerrebew]

U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
Even accepting the Trump administration’s claim that there is an armed conflict with suspected drug runners, the laws of war bar “perfidy.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Capitol last week.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
 
By Charlie SavageEric SchmittJohn IsmayJulian E. BarnesRiley Mellen and Christiaan Triebert
Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, John Ismay and Julian E. Barnes reported from Washington; Riley Mellen and Christiaan Triebert reported from New York.

Jan. 12, 2026
 
The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first attack on a boat that the Trump administration said was smuggling drugs, killing 11 people last September, according to officials briefed on the matter. The aircraft also carried its munitions inside the fuselage, rather than visibly under its wings, they said.

The nonmilitary appearance is significant, according to legal specialists, because the administration has argued its lethal boat attacks are lawful — not murders — because President Trump “determined” the United States is in an armed conflict with drug cartels.

But the laws of armed conflict prohibit combatants from feigning civilian status to fool adversaries into dropping their guard, then attacking and killing them. That is a war crime called “perfidy.”

Retired Maj. Gen. Steven J. Lepper, a former deputy judge advocate general for the United States Air Force, said that if the aircraft had been painted in a way that disguised its military nature and got close enough for the people on the boat to see it — tricking them into failing to realize they should take evasive action or surrender to survive — that was a war crime under armed-conflict standards.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/us/politics/us-boat-attacks-law.html

[rangerrebew]

But the laws of armed conflict prohibit combatants from feigning civilian status to fool adversaries into dropping their guard, then attacking and killing them. 

Has anyone informed ISIS, Hamas, al Shabab, et., al of this "rule?"

[PeteS in CA]

Given the more than a century of military planes sporting various decorative and camouflage paint schemes, what does "painted to look like a civilian plane" mean? Is the NYT trying to stir @#$% beause the US used a propeller-driven plane instead of an F-18 or F-35? Did anyone dare to explain to the NYT that supersonic or transonic speed makes aiming at a stationary or near-stationary target more difficult than with a 200-400 mph plane? I wonder if what was used was actually an A-29 Super Tucano, perhaps from Ecuador (who is working with the USAF and operates A-29s).

But the laws of armed conflict prohibit combatants from feigning civilian status to fool adversaries into dropping their guard ...

This applies to combat between nations' military forces, not to law enforcement at sea.

[AL]

Man, we sure have some cool weapons.  Look up in the air, its a bird, its a plane, boom.   

[mountaineer]

Who enacted these "laws of armed conflict"? 

[Smokin Joe]

Well, shucks, maybe next time use FPV drones and there won't be that problem. I bet one could be set up with a little jet engine that would be much faster than the boats.