Venezuela action displays US military’s ‘most fearsome’ might

LONDON – “The United States military is the strongest and most fearsome military on the planet by far, with capabilities and skills our enemies can scarcely begin to imagine.” 

That was how US President Donald Trump boasted after the Jan 3 operation that seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Mr Trump is, of course, a master of exaggeration and self-praise. Yet for once, the US President was not exaggerating. His description of the Venezuela operation as “one of the most stunning and powerful displays of American military might and competence” was spot on.

Governments around the world may decry the US action, but military planners are sure to study the US operation with awe and envy.

The key to the success of such an operation is not only very accurate intelligence information about the intended target, but also the skill of putting together an elite force to accomplish this mission – one that is both small enough to be nimble and large enough to confront any unexpected developments.

What happens when you get this balance wrong is shown by the recent experience of Russia, which attempted to target a head of state, yet failed with disastrous consequences.

In the early hours of Feb 24, 2022, crack Russian airborne forces landed in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, with orders to seize or kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Everyone believed that the Russians would succeed in decapitating the Ukrainian government; the only option the US intelligence community suggested was to save Mr Zelensky’s life by flying him out of his country.

But the Russians failed because their intelligence was faulty, and their crack troops far too small for the task. The result is that President Zelensky remains in office, and Russia remains embroiled in a war that has already lasted four years. The price for a botched operation of this sort can be huge, in both reputational and military terms.

In many respects, the US operation to seize Maduro was far more complex. While the Ukrainians, back in 2022, doubted that an impending Russian attack was coming, the Venezuelans did not doubt that the US was about to descend on them.

Russia’s military bases were also very near their Ukrainian targets, while the US had to assemble a significant force in the Caribbean in preparation for the attack in Venezuela.

And while the Russians could have accomplished their objective in 2022 by simply killing the Ukrainian President, any US operation that resulted in the death of Maduro would have been seen as a failure for the US, as well as turned the Venezuelan President into an anti-US martyr.

The fact that the US accomplished its task without the loss of even one US soldier or US military platform is a testament not only to good intelligence, but also to flawless training and preparation.

Latin America has not been a priority in the US for a long time. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) devoted most of its assets to targeting Russia and China, as well as tackling global terrorism and emerging technological challenges. And the US military had its best troops deployed in other parts of the world.

But since August, when Mr Trump apparently made up his mind to unseat the Venezuelan leader, the CIA diverted enormous resources to this task, and ultimately succeeded in mapping Maduro’s every move, including his estimated 11 different hideouts and various escape routes.

The flow of information had to be not only accurate, but also constantly updated: Maduro’s location on any given night was known only hours beforehand.

The Delta Force, the crack unit tasked with the operation, had to pull its squadrons from the Middle East and North Africa, where they were initially deployed, to train for the Venezuela mission. And it had to take for granted that the operation would entail fighting well-trained Cuban units assigned to protect the Venezuelan leader.

Much could have gone wrong. But nothing did, because of accurate planning and two additional reasons.

The first was the US’ ability to paralyse and shut down, primarily through cyberwarfare means, Venezuela’s entire electricity and communications grids. It is known that in conjunction with other countries, the Americans have been working on such cyberweapons for decades; then President George W. Bush was offered by his military an earlier version of such capabilities in 2003, on the eve of his invasion of Iraq.

At that time, Mr Bush rejected these weapons; now Mr Trump has used them with great success. The infrastructure paralysis inflicted on Venezuela is likely to be repeated as a prelude to any future conflict.

And then, there was the US’ extraordinary ability to suppress Venezuela’s air defences. The country had advanced Russian-made long-range S-300 surface-to-air missiles, medium-range Buk missiles and short-range Igla shoulder-launched missiles, which could be lethal for the slow-moving helicopters carrying US special forces.

Since September, Venezuela has also installed an estimated seven units of the Chinese-made JY-27A radar systems, touted as being able to detect US stealth jets. Indeed, only a few weeks ago, the Venezuelan Defence Minister boasted that these Chinese installations accurately locked onto US F-35 fighter jets at a distance of 75km from Venezuela’s shores.

But neither the Russian nor the Chinese air defence systems appear to have made the slightest bit of difference; a combination of real-time US intelligence, electronic warfare and US precision weapons knocked them all out. The single US aircraft that was hit during the operation appears to have been damaged by scattered bullets.

The total dismantling of Venezuela’s air defences mirrors exactly what Israel achieved during its 12-day war against Iran in June. It is likely to cause a lot of head-scratching among military planners in Moscow and Beijing, for it serves as a clear indication that US military superiority in this domain remains unchallenged.

A handful of other militaries around the world possess capabilities to mount similar operations. But none can do so on the scale of the US. So, like it or hate it, the fact remains that – at least in purely military terms – the US continues to reign supreme.

And Mr Trump evidently intends to keep it this way.