The U.S. military operation in Venezuela, which neutralized air bases, military barracks, and strategic nodes across the country—and ultimately achieved its objective of removing Nicolás Maduro from power—laid bare one of the main structural weaknesses of the Venezuelan Armed Forces: the fragility of its Chinese-origin air defense system when confronted by an adversary with supremacy in electronic warfare, intelligence, and precision strike capabilities. During the short duration of the operation, U.S. assets succeeded in degrading and blinding key sensors within the defensive network, paving the way for the employment of expeditionary air-mobile capabilities from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, and the Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D).
At the core of Venezuela’s defensive architecture was a network of radars supplied by the China Electronics Technology Group, including JYL-1 three-dimensional surveillance systems and the JY-27 metric-wave radar, which for years had been promoted as a supposed “stealth aircraft hunter“. Based on assessments of the swift and decisive operation, these sensors were disabled during the initial phase through intensive electronic jamming, leaving the integrated air defense system without early-warning capability. This was compounded by a widespread electrical power outage across large areas of Venezuela, aimed at dismantling command-and-control capabilities.
The neutralization of the radar network prevented any effective employment of longer-range air defense systems, including the S-300V and Buk-M2 complexes acquired from Russia to establish a layered defense. In parallel, suppression strikes against several Buk-M2 systems—at least two confirmed—completely nullified their ability to respond. With no functional data links and no control of the airspace, air defense units were disconnected from central command, allowing U.S. forces to achieve total air superiority within minutes.
The loss of air control had an immediate impact on Venezuelan ground forces, particularly those deployed in and around the areas of operation. With the effects of SEAD missions, the neutralization of command-and-control capabilities, and the inability to provide an air defense umbrella over military installations, the deployment of MH-60M Black Hawk and MH-47G Chinook helicopters, as well as MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, was carried out successfully. According to official U.S. statements following the operation, only one helicopter was hit, yet it was able to return to its point of origin without major issues. It is worth noting that the use of the 9K338 system by personnel of the Venezuelan Armed Forces (FANB) has been visually confirmed, albeit in a limited manner.
A similar situation affected fire-support assets, armored units, and other elements, which appear to have remained largely static in the face of the U.S. military operation. It can be assessed that they lacked target information and effective coordination in an environment saturated by electronic warfare. The inability to integrate sensors, fires, and maneuver in real time left these units without the capacity to exert any meaningful influence in mounting an adequate defensive response.
From a military standpoint, analysts agree that the outcome cannot be explained by the failure of a single system, but rather by the inability of a Chinese-designed command-and-control framework to operate under intense interference and multidomain attacks. The U.S. operation exposed the limitations of these architectures when confronted by forces capable of integrating intelligence, electronic warfare, combat aviation, and special operations within a single operational cycle, confirming that superiority lies not solely in hardware, but in the coherence and resilience of the system as a whole.
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But iit was largely due to China assisted eletronic warfare system that Pakistan was able to jam or nuetralize Indin Rafales during the May 7, 2025 air battle that saw apx 120 modern aircraft from both sides facing each other and during qhuch Pakistan reportedly downed 4 Indian Rafales and 3 other aircraft.
that “Chinese” assisted electronic warfare was an old swedish Saab 2000 Erieye AEW&C. old Nato tech.
Pakistan downed Indian jets on social media only lol. In reality they lost 11 Airbases to precision stand off weapons like Brahmos lol, verified by satellites.
It was the hesitancy to respond and surprise rather than effectiveness of an air defence system. Worthy to note is the lack of resolve of the Venezuelan Airforce and will to fight back and Obviously after success of a military operation the Americans will blame the Chinese weapons and systems,but if the Chinese systems were so ineffective, Northern Korea would have long been neutralised .
It appears that the US had access and influence inside the Venezuelan government because there has been no aggressive response to this military aggression.
Just because you are powerful doesn’t mean you barg into a sovereign territory. Where is the legitimacy of the aggression of USA? Is USA the Chief Justice of every nation?
Venezuelan teams are likely poorly trained, and the condition/state of the equipment is unknown. Plus. the Us gained experience from the Isrelis in Iran.
Impressive military operation. The details of the failure of Venezuelan air defense are obviously classified. Probably not due to hesitancy of the Venezuelan Air Force. If they locked on targets, they would have launched missiles to deter the intrusion.
It’s obviously Chinese and Russian military systems were all awfully substandard against the superiority of the American military.
Well,internal elements again played the same role like Iran faced
The Chinese and Russian military military systems simply fell way below the superior American military technology and expertise.
Because US had months of prepared , they got enough times and they knew and locked all target located and sent massive missiles first before air raid arrive and they destroyed power system too.
who won？
Not Maduro
Trump has achieved two things.
1/ He needed a new supply of “Heavy crude oil”, since Canada now has alternative markets. Venezuelan crude is “heavy”.
2/ He has the Mid-term elections coming up, this year and needs a contraversial distraction. He now has one.
Oh so now when a president does important or things that draw big news it’s automatically just a distraction from something else? Stop being so simple minded and come up with some new material.
Read the first half of the comment, they literally stated he did it for more reasons than just a distraction, he wanted to steal their crude too. But either way, You’re naive if you think that an upcoming election wouldn’t factor into a sitting president’s calculus.
There were too many adversaries and spies against Maduro government. The opposition was always wanting to help the US to topple the Venezuela government. That was partly the reason. Help from within and strength from outside.
The US achieved such unabated success mainly due to two reasons:
1. Deep infiltration within the Maduro government and security forces. This gave the US precious information relating to Maduro’s location, defense systems and critical infrastructure months before the actual attack.
2. The lack of redundancy and decentralization in the Venezuelan radar and air defense systems made them easy pickings for jamming and malfunction. Venezuela seemed to actually have good hardware in place but for a number of reasons they weren’t used at all during the strikes.
Venzenveula’s top generals assisted US army and there was no resistance at all , else atleast few US soldier could have died in such low altitude operation even from bullet fired from a gun on ground while landing in place , we don’t even know maybe it was their own miltry who captured him and handed him over to US
Well its takes months of planning for this attack, what do you expect. In real face to face war, US military will be gone long ago for taking such a long time….
Three words nobody should ever take seriously: Chinese military technology.
Theirstrength is in numbers. Their gear has always been lacking. But I am sure they keep their good stuff for themselves. Once, the USA get true Hypersonic missles, any advantage they have will be gone.