In the spring of 1990, Cuban President Fidel Castro was grappling with the likelihood of conflict with the United States — for the first time without the promise of Russian help. Backed into a corner, Castro reportedly declared that Cuba would rather become another “Numancia” than be conquered.
He was referring to the ancient Roman siege of the Spanish city of Numancia in 133 BC. But most of the city’s residents refused to surrender to their attackers, instead choosing to take their own lives inside the city walls.
“La Numancia” became a motif in defiant speeches late into Castro’s presidency, Cuba policy expert Frank Mora told CNN, as the island’s once-powerful and Russian-backed military grew decrepit while subsidies withered away following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Today, Cuba is facing fresh threats by the US and its leadership is following a similar script to the late Castro, making it clear they’re prepared to go down swinging even if they lack the capabilities, Mora said.
As the Trump administration escalates its pressure campaign against Cuba, hundreds of videos and images published online by the island nation’s military and government in recent months illustrate the reduced state of its combat force, according to a CNN analysis.
The videos deliberately showcase aging hardware because they’re designed to project defiance — not strength — Mora said. They’re meant to “show the resistance” of the Cuban people, he explained, regardless of how Cuban forces might stack up against the larger and more technologically advanced US military.
In images from April, an old-school Soviet ZU-23 anti-aircraft system is towed by oxen. According to local reports, the system was being used as part of a local military training exercise.
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Other footage shows antique military trucks to more advanced, Russian-built anti-aircraft systems, to elite special forces zip lining near the beach.
Cuban officials say they have no intention of threatening the US –– at Guantanamo Naval Base or otherwise –– but they will defend themselves if attacked. In April, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told Newsweek if military aggression occurs, and “should we fall in battle, to die for the homeland is to live.”
At its peak in the early 1990s, Cuba’s military had swelled to a force of over 235,000 active-duty personnel and more reservists, boasting what analysts lauded as a “first-world military in a third-world country.” The force was strengthened by advanced Soviet weaponry that could go toe-to-toe with US armaments.
The force has more than halved in recent years, experts say, to at most 50,000 active-duty personnel after the loss of Soviet support. This reduced forc continually trains on decades-old Soviet equipment — much of it given as foreign aid before the USSR’s collapse in 1991.
The island still maintains some serious, though aged, hardware that has become fixtures in video released by the Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, like in one clip from Facebook in January. In it, soldiers maneuver a modified Soviet-era BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system which could help carry out agile attacks or defend against the enemy.
When the mobile launcher rig stops, soldiers clad in army green uniforms run around the truck. The launch tubes themselves don’t appear to be loaded, but the men carefully adjust the angle of the launcher, gesturing to each other with colored flags.
As the truck drives off, the “Ural” brand appears emblazoned across the front of the truck — a more recent Russian upgrade to a weapons system designed in the early days of the Cold War.
In another video, one of these rigs fires off its payload of self-propelled rockets in slow-motion, to the tune of a dramatic orchestral score.
The clips were punctuated by nostalgic archival footage of Cuban forces training decades earlier, like many others CNN reviewed.
“Over the last 35 years, there is no doubt that this first world military has now become, at best, a shell of its previous version,” Mora explained.
Facing economic turmoil and without access to Soviet subsidies, updated equipment, and spare parts, Cuba’s military deteriorated from the early 1990s into the 2000s. It was around this time when Cuban military planners adapted with a “hedgehog strategy,” aimed at “making themselves harder to conquer,” retired US Marine Colonel Mark Cancian explained.
As part of this shift, Cuban officers are opting to train soldiers in guerrilla tactics rather than conventional warfare — a strategic departure corroborated by Cancian that is also evident in the footage.
More recent clips shared by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces reveal soldiers training in guerilla tactics. They hop on and off motorbikes, wielding rocket-propelled grenade launchers, wood-handled PK machine guns, and AK-style rifles.
Some of them wear face paint, camouflage uniforms, and ghillie suits — ducking in and out of foxholes cut into the ground. More videos show armored personnel carriers emerging from man-made jungle shelters, and amphibious soldiers training to storm a beach.
These tactics could make the Cuban military much harder to subdue. even for much stronger adversary, Cancian said.
Other videos showing Cuba’s aged military training are tougher to explain —for example, special forces abseiling in tandem down a tower clad with sheet metal at Playa Baracoa, a military base on the outskirts of Havana. The soldiers fire their rifles almost indiscriminately, in other scenes ziplining just a few hundred feet from passing taxis and motorcycles.
In another, a solitary fighter performs martial arts, training as part of the elite Black Wasps unit, Cuba’s equivalent of the US Navy SEALs or Delta Force. He trains alone in an asphalt courtyard, whose markings are reminiscent of a four-square court.
“Prepared to defend the homeland,” the caption reads.
Cuba’s Air Force has also deteriorated since its Cold War-era might, and its remaining assets are rarely featured in public-facing releases — except for the occasional Mi-17 helicopter of Soviet design, seen mostly in low-risk training missions or supporting humanitarian aid operations.
Decades ago, the Air Force operated several MiG fighter jets, nearly all of which are likely now dysfunctional, experts say. And, as Mora pointed out, it’s hard to fly a fourth-generation Russian fighter jet with no gas .
Last month, Axios reported that Cuba had acquired more than 300 military drones. Details around the type or capabilities of these aircraft remain unclear, but they may constitute some of the island’s only aerial capabilities.
Cuban officials vehemently denied the report.
If there were drones, it would only provide a “one-time pulse of striking power,” though, and would leave the Cuban regime with few options to respond later, Cancian said.
No images of these purported drones have surfaced, and only a handful of clips which apparently show Cuban forces training with small, consumer drones, have circulated in recent months.
With few options to fend off a potential US offensive, Cuban officials are left to project strength, publicly reject Washington’s vision for a new Cuba, and hope the Trump administration’s attention drifts elsewhere.
CNN’s Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.
