The ineffectiveness of Venezuela's defenses: what happened to its F-16, Su-30 and MANPADS?

The rapid US military intervention in Venezuela, with the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, raises some questions.

Donald Trump announces the capture of Nicolás Maduro after a US raid in Venezuela
The special operations helicopters of the United States Army's 'Night Stalkers'

An intervention with the elite of US special operations

As I already pointed out here this morning, everything seems to indicate that one of the units involved in this operation was the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) "Night Stalkers" of the US Army, whose helicopters usually provide support to level one special operations groups such as Delta Force (which would be responsible for the capture of Maduro, according to Jennifer Jacobs). The MH-60L Black Hawk and MH-47G Chinook Block II aircraft of that Regiment would be some of the aircraft that have been seen in today's US assault on Caracas.

Everything seems to indicate that before the helicopter attack, the United States had attacked several Venezuelan military bases with missiles and aircraft. The attacks have been much more selective than some would have us believe, surely in an attempt to minimize both civilian and military casualties, since not all Venezuelan soldiers are loyal to the Maduro dictatorship, and causing many casualties among them would erode US support among the Venezuelan people.

Thus, the intervention was precise, surgical, and swift, focusing much of the action on the use of special operations forces and avoiding unnecessary attacks on military bases in other parts of Venezuela. The main area of ​​attack was Caracas and its surroundings. As we saw this morning, one of the US targets was the Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base in La Carlota, east of Caracas. This VPItv video shows the attack on that base:

#URGENTE | Explosión sobre la base militar La Carlota, en Caracas, este #3Ene. Vía @luisgonzaloprz pic.twitter.com/a3252I9cFu

— VPItv (@VPITV) January 3, 2026

The destruction of Venezuela's SAM systems

The attack on the La Carlota airbase partially explains the success of the US operation. We can see this in these two AFP photos published by the newspaper La Nación:

What we see here is a Russian BUK-M2E surface-to-air missile (SAM) launcher. The Venezuelan dictatorship bought three of these systems from Russia in 2013. These air defense systems were almost certainly a priority target of the US attack, in order to open a safe air corridor for helicopters. You can see here a video from Venezuelan state television showing the effects of the attack on the La Carlota air base, where, judging by the images, civilian buses were used as barricades to try to block access to the military installation (one of the buses is riddled with bullet holes):

Venezuela 🇻🇪: footage from La Carlota airbase in Caracas this morning following the American strikes overnight. pic.twitter.com/QuHocWtDX3

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) January 3, 2026

What happened to the Venezuelan F-16 and Su-30 fighter jets?

Given the state of the surface-to-air missiles, it now remains to be seen what has happened to the Venezuelan fighter jets. According to "The Military Balance 2024" by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in 2024 Venezuela had 39 fighter jets: 21 Su-30MKV Flankers, 18 F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters (15 F-16As and 3 F-16Bs).

According to various sources, the current state of the F-16s, due to a lack of spare parts (caused by the US embargo on Venezuela), is very poor. Therefore, Venezuela likely only had 3 active F-16s (and poorly armed ones at that), in addition to the 21 Russian-made Su-30s. Furthermore, the Maduro regime purchased 23 Hongdu K-8 Karakorum advanced training aircraft from communist China (with some attack capabilities) and 12 Embraer EMB 312V Tucano aircraft from Brazil, with ground attack capabilities. These purchases appear to have met with no resistance.

Both fighter jets and SAMs are easy targets to destroy. In fact, some reports indicate that the US has attacked some of its bases, specifically El Libertador Air Base between Palo Negro and Maracay, where Fighter Group No. 16, equipped with F-16A/Bs, and Fighter Group No. 11, equipped with Su-30MK2s, are located. However, there is no record of attacks on Lieutenant Luis del Valle García Air Base, where Fighter Group No. 13, also equipped with Su-30MK2s, is based.

It doesn't appear that the US attack on El Libertador Air Base succeeded in destroying all the Venezuelan fighter jets stationed there. Hours after that military intervention concluded with the capture of Nicolás Maduro, @InquisidorVZLA reported the takeoff of 4 F-16s and 2 Su-30s from that base. Here's the video:

#AHORA 10:41 Atención; cuatro F-16 AMB acaban de despegar de BAEL en vuelos completamente rasantes sin tomar altura y luego 5 minutos después 2 Sukhoi 30 AMB a media altura, todos en dirección sur. @AeroNoticiasVE @Arr3ch0 @SA_Defensa @UHN_Plus pic.twitter.com/erAON1mR9f

— El Inquisidor ⃝⃤🇻🇪🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@InquisidorVZLA) January 3, 2026

Thus, the Venezuelan Air Force could have deployed fighter jets but did not, either because it took too long to react, because it had not received the alert about the attack (surely the US Navy's EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft were already doing their job to disable Venezuelan radars) or simply because the pilots considered that it was not worth dying for Maduro.

The mystery of the 5,000 Venezuelan Igla-S MANPADS

This brings us to the most inexplicable part of today's operation: the MANPADS, or man-portable air defense systems. These are missiles that can be launched by a single person. A few months ago, the Maduro dictatorship claimed to have some 5,000 Russian-made 9K338 Igla-S MANPADS. The number was surely exaggerated to try to intimidate the United States, but even if there were only a few hundred, those missiles represent an enormous threat to helicopters. They are easy to deploy anywhere and it is almost impossible to destroy them before they open fire.

The United States would have run a great risk initiating such an operation in a country with hundreds of MANPADS. However, today we saw US helicopters flying undisturbed. Santiago Rivas points out this hypothesis on the Argentine website Pucará Defensa: "It is presumed that there was collaboration from the Venezuelan armed forces, who offered practically no resistance, in addition to the fact that the United States did not attack any of the other air bases in the country, especially El Libertador, Barcelona, ​​and El Sombrero, where its fighter units with F-16s and Su-30s are based."

Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, offers other explanations: "Venezuela's air defense was either disabled by the US or Venezuelan military had no means/desire to use it. It is quite possible that Venezuela's military leadership had no desire to fight and die for Maduro, so they made a conscious decision to allow the US to carry out the operation without any resistance on their part."

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Main photo: André Austin Du-Pont Rocha. A Venezuelan Sukhoi Su-30MK2 fighter in a photo taken in October 2011.