The Military Is Drilling Special Operations Raids In The Heart Of The LA Area, But Don't Panic

In the early hours of Friday, the City of Long Beach, part of the wider Los Angeles metro area, was rocked by a full-on special operations raid. The elite commandos of an unnamed U.S. military unit flew in with Black Hawk and Little Bird helicopters before assaulting a facility, complete with gunfire and loud explosions, possibly grenades or flashbangs. Later, terrified citizens learned that this was merely a drill. Still, it might be spooky to learn that the military can even do that.

But it turns out that it can, and in fact has been doing these sorts of urban raid drills since the Obama administration. What's happening now, though, appears to be a week-long "super drill" involving multiple simulated raids across multiple states. Starting May 26, the 13^th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton, California has been running Realistic Urban Training exercises that have involved Glendale, Arizona and Blythe and Camis, California. The Riverside County Sheriff's office (yes, that's soon-to-be-ex-gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco) put out a quiet statement warning of "intermittent, loud noises associated with simulated tactical operations." Translation: your neighborhood is going to become a war zone, suddenly. And we're not trying that hard to tell you.

But these drills go wider than this, potentially involving other, more secretive units as well. The Los Angeles Times reported that the cities of Irvine and Pasadena, also close to Los Angeles, issued day-of notifications that military drills would be taking place on Wednesday. Sure enough, that night, both cities were faux raided. It turns out that Long Beach, too, issued a day-of notification, alongside the nearby City of Industry. That is quite a busy week for special operators.

The footage that came out of these raid drills is pretty wild. Helicopters flying low through dense city streets, soldiers (or perhaps sailors or Marines) repelling out of Black Hawks, gunfire and explosions. One resident said she heard screaming coming out of the Pasadena raid. This is all in the middle of the night, too, so it's pretty shocking for the citizenry. (For context: these drills often involve actors to play the hostages and bad guys, so the screaming was probably from them.)

What seems to be happening is that the military informs the city government that it will be conducting a drill, but asks them not to tell anyone until the last minute. That gives local police time to cordon off the area of the drill, which you can see from the videos. The city government finally does send out a notice on the day of, but most ordinary people don't see it, so then they're stunned that their own military is invading their neighborhood.

From the military's perspective, the reason to do this is obvious: urban warfare is very different from any other terrain, and the troops need to drill that environment. So every once in a while, it's going to run exercises in that terrain. While it is disruptive, it's also necessary; that may be why they happen infrequently, but in rapid-fire bursts of activity like now.

From the citizen's perspective, this is very scary! The military and local government can claim that they technically let you know (in a quiet post on the government's website on the day of), but in practice it's like being startled awake by a war zone that moved in next door in the middle of the night. Particularly in an era of very real immigration raids, which have hit this very area in the last year, that is deeply unwelcome. To put it mildly.

From a safety perspective, urban military drills can be disastrous. In January of 2025, an Army Black Hawk flying a "continuity of government" drill through Washington, DC crashed into American Airlines Flight 5342, killing 67 people. That incident sparked a debate about whether drills need to be flown in densely populated cities at all. Again, the Pentagon's argument was that these exercises are vital and need to take place, even in the face of tragedy. For the moment, other than a few minor changes to flightpaths, the Pentagon is winning that argument. So if you'd like the military to stop raiding that vacant building next door, I wouldn't hold your breath.