Beijing Systems Put To The Test: How US Forces Crushed Venezuela’s Chinese Air Defences | World News

New Delhi: The US military operation that ousted Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela exposed the weakness of the country’s defenses and showed how vulnerable Chinese-made air defense systems are to modern US electronic warfare and precision attacks.

In a carefully planned operation, US forces hit air bases, military barracks and strategic points in Caracas, effectively blinding Venezuela’s radar networks and rendering its air defense units nearly powerless. The operation relied heavily on intelligence superiority, electronic disruption, and rapid deployment of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the famed Night Stalkers, and Delta Force teams.

At the core of the country’s defense network were radars supplied by China Electronic Technology Group, including the JYL-1 3D surveillance system and the JY-27 metric wave radar. These systems have long been promoted as capable “stealth fighters.” However, during the operation, US forces disabled these sensors through extensive electronic jamming during working hours. The power outage further disrupted the Venezuelan military’s command and control capabilities and left its integrated air defense system blinded and uncoordinated.

Due to the radars being disabled, long-range air defense systems, including Russian-made S-300V and Buk-M2 batteries, could not be deployed effectively. Suppression attacks on multiple Buk-M2 systems, at least two of which have been confirmed, neutralized their ability to respond. Without functional data links or control over their airspace, Venezuelan air defenses were cut off from central command, allowing US forces to dominate the skies within minutes.

The collapse of air control had immediate consequences for Venezuelan ground forces. MH-60M Black Hawk and MH-47G Chinook helicopters, together with MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, moved to operational areas with almost complete freedom.

Official US reports say only one helicopter was damaged and it returned safely to base. Some Venezuelan military personnel (FANB) were seen using the 9K338 system, but this was not enough to affect the outcome of the operation.

Fire support units, armored formations, and other ground elements were largely static and unable to move due to lack of target information and real-time coordination.

Analysts say the failure to integrate sensors, maneuvers and fire on a battlefield saturated with electronic warfare renders Venezuelan units ineffective.

They say failure is not due to the failure of a single system. Instead, the operation revealed the broader limitations of Chinese-designed command and control architectures under multi-domain attacks. When intelligence, electronic warfare, aviation, and special operations are integrated into a single operational cycle, hardware alone cannot compensate for structural weaknesses.

The US campaign in Venezuela shows that military effectiveness depends not only on the technology itself, but also on the resilience, coherence and adaptability of the entire defense system.