The Venezuelan military’s limited visible response has drawn scrutiny because Venezuela had for years spent heavily on air defense systems and combat aircraft, much of it bought from Russia and China, Poland's PAP news agency said in an analysis.
It said social media footage from the day of the raid appeared to show US helicopters flying over Caracas without effective interference as troops from the Delta Force, an elite US Army unit, moved in.
One video showed what appeared to be a single surface-to-air missile launch, described as coming from a Russian-made Buk system, but without any apparent effect.
After the operation, images circulated showing destroyed air defense equipment, including what the PAP news agency described as Buk-M2 and S-300 family systems, and reports of damaged Chinese-made long-range radars, including the JY-27.
Venezuela’s inventory has long reflected its close military ties with Moscow and Beijing, built during the presidencies of Chávez and Maduro and supported by large oil revenues.
“The operation was clearly preceded by detailed reconnaissance, target selection for airstrikes, and electronic warfare,” said Michał Piekarski, an analyst at the Institute of International and Security Studies at the University of Wrocław in southwestern Poland.
He said Venezuelan forces ran into what he called the world’s most advanced special operations machinery, centered on the US Joint Special Operations Command, a US military headquarters that oversees elite units and supporting capabilities.
PAP said one likely reason for the lack of reaction was the early disabling of Venezuela’s air defense network through strikes on key radars, command posts and launchers.
The agency reported that US reconnaissance flights near Venezuela’s borders in recent months could have helped map the locations of air defense sites before the raid.
Such sites can be targeted with anti-radiation weapons such as the AGM-88 HARM, a missile designed to home in on radar emissions.
The analysis pointed to the heavy use of stealth aircraft, including the F-22 and F-35, which are built to be harder for radars to detect and track. PAP said this would have further complicated any Venezuelan attempt to identify incoming aircraft and coordinate a response.
Another major factor, the analysis said, was electronic warfare, the use of specialized equipment to jam or deceive radars and communications, and to disrupt missile guidance.
PAP described US electronic warfare capabilities as the product of decades of development, including dedicated aircraft such as the EA-18G Growler and larger platforms used to interfere with enemy sensors and radio links.
The analysis said these actions fit into a broader military concept known as Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) meaning operations aimed at blinding, confusing and destroying air defense systems so other aircraft can operate more freely.
A member of the security detail assigned to protect Maduro, quoted by Fox News, described a sudden collapse in radar coverage before drones and helicopters appeared overhead, PAP reported.
Even with air defense sites hit or jammed, PAP said a key mystery remains: why other parts of Venezuela’s defenses did not engage more visibly, including fighter aircraft and ground units armed with anti-aircraft guns or shoulder-fired missiles.
The analysis noted that Venezuela has operated Russian-made Sukhoi fighters and US-made F-16s, and that Maduro claimed in October that the country had around 5,000 man-portable air defense missiles, weapons designed to shoot down low-flying aircraft.
Piekarski suggested the limited response may indicate a breakdown in command, including the possibility that orders to use certain weapons were never issued.
He also raised the prospect of internal cooperation that eased the US operation.
“Perhaps people in the Venezuelan military were recruited to cooperate to make the operation even easier,” he told PAP, suggesting the use of intelligence influence against members of Venezuela’s political and military elite.
PAP argued that, from the US perspective, operations of this kind are closely watched because they can shape planning for potential conflict with China.
The analysis said US forces may have sought to learn more about how Chinese-built systems and Russian-designed technology perform under modern US strike and electronic warfare tactics, especially after major Chinese military exercises around Taiwan in late 2025.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP