[Obviously, as a preface, Rubio is the brains behind this act, not Trump. Trump is an idiot, full stop. He has to "OK" the plan, but it was Rubio and experts at the Special Operations Command (SOC) that came up with this.]
The "National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela" (here after ARV) as they are officially known was akin, in my mind, to the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein. With observers already on the ground in the country, the SOC could pin point ARV concentrations and anti-aircraft brigades fairly easily. There are around 110,000 full time troops in the ARV with another 200,000 as part of the National Militia. Outside of these two official armed forces is anyone guess. The AFV has about 40 Russian made Sukhoi Su-30MKV jet fighter/bombers. They also had purchased 3 J ( https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=JYL-1_Radar&action=edit&redlink=1 ) JYL-1 long range 3D surveillance radars from China. These are truck mounted not like the US and Russia "AWACs" flying versions of them. The Russians also sold Venezuela 40 Mi-17, 3 Mi-26 and 8 Mi-35 military attack/transport helicopters. I suspect all this equipment are toast sitting on their tarmacs...or not, especially if the US was able to subvert the ARV leadership and they want them armed now that Maduro is gone. Additionally the AFV purchased from Russia over 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles. As far as anti-aircraft systems are concerned, as I noted previously, these weapons systems are only so good if the ARV knows where and when the U.S. is going to attack. If these systems are turned OFF, as they usually are, then they simply useless and highly expensive machines. If they are turned on, US Navy anti-radar missiles will seek them out and overwhelm them. The man-portable shoulder mounted anti-aircraft missiles-MANPADS (think the Russian versions of a Stinger missile) are almost useless at night which is when the attack took place making a all such weapons, including anti-aircraft artillery useless. The AFV were, essentially, useless in preventing an invasion by a force like the U.S. which has done this before from Granada through Iraq. The Dept. of War accumulates knowledge on these sort of criminal regime change efforts. So the big question now is "now what?". As you all have seen Trump announced he and Rubio will be "personally running Venezuela". A huh. While much/some of the important military infrastructure is destroyed (material and personnel) much remains. The political and still loyal elements of military structure, if it hasn't crumbled under this assault, can make life miserable for the U.S. forces or their puppets (see Iraq/Afghanistan). We have to wait and see. I'm hoping the Venezuelan people can continue to defend their sovereignty. David -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40002): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40002 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117059292/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
