China’s highly touted radars appear to have been of little help when the US launched its massive airstrike against Venezuela

• Chinese air defense radars in Venezuela were no game changer during the US raid to capture Maduro.

• China has touted the combat effectiveness of radars like the JY-27A.

• The lack of effect recently raises questions about both the radar and its operators.

Venezuela’s military had Chinese-made anti-aircraft radars at its disposal when the US launched a surprise airstrike against the country to capture the country’s former leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month. Apparently they were of little help.

Operation Absolute Resolve involved over 150 US military aircraft, none of which were shot down. One helicopter was reportedly hit by machine gun fire but remained operational.

Venezuela has a number of mobile JY-27A radars from China, which Beijing has touted as state-of-the-art systems. The radar was said to be able to detect stealth assets such as the US F-22 and F-35 from over 150 miles away.

The success of the surprise raid by US special operators in downtown Caracas, part of a larger mission that involved not only covert air power but older fourth-generation jets and helicopters, suggests that something did not go as planned in the defense. However, that may be down to the operators rather than the technology.

After the raid, a Japanese reporter asked a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman what Beijing thought of the “large amount of military equipment” sold by China to Venezuela, apparently of “little practical use”. The Chinese spokesman responded by condemning the American attack.

The Chinese-made JY-27A is a long-range radar used to detect and track hostile aircraft in protected airspace. Introduced in 2014, the radar system consists of a radar mast with multiple antenna panels supported by separate radar and control vehicles. Chinese sources claim it has features designed to reduce jamming. A newer version, the JY-27V, has since been developed.

When Venezuela acquired the JY-27A from China last year, there were claims that the radars were able to jam on several F-35B fighter jets off the coast of Venezuela, posing a potential challenge to the US military’s one-way transparency advantage.

“That’s all well and good,” Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Business Insider, “but when it really matters is in a time of conflict.” They may not have been able to withstand sophisticated electromagnetic spectrum attacks, or they may have been misused by their operators. However, if they were not effective, they were of little use for air defense.

It is the radar systems that inform the air defense crews what they will need to target and what weapons they need to use. “If you don’t have working radars, then you’re a sitting duck,” he said.

US military leaders said US aircraft were able to overwhelm Venezuelan air defenses, which were assessed to include a number of Russian-made systems such as S-300VM batteries, Buk-M2 systems and older S-125 Pechora-2M launchers, as well as Chinese radars. Some of these parts are capable, but they are not the latest variants used by the respective exporters.

As a result, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mocked the effectiveness of Russian air defenses. Nothing was said about Chinese radars in that speech.

The key to air defense is how the network works together, and operator efficiency is vital. In the case of Venezuela, the necessary conditions for successful air defense operations may have been lacking.

A study by the Miami Strategic Intelligence Institute think tank, which houses Latin American experts, rated Venezuela’s air defenses as being in critical condition as of last year.

It said more than 60 percent of its radar fleet was not operational, fighter jets did not fly often and the country received little maintenance support and spare parts from its exporters.

Venezuela has acquired Chinese-made radars and Russian-made surface-to-air missile batteries to upgrade its air defenses, but hardware alone cannot compensate for domestic deficiencies.

The New York Times analysis found that some of Venezuela’s air defense equipment was in storage or not operational, leaving it unprepared for a US attack. Reports also indicated that Venezuela’s military lacks the spare parts and technical know-how to keep the air defense systems operational.

Even if the failures are on the part of the Venezuelan military, the ineffective performance of the Russian and Chinese systems sends a “pretty big message,” Sobolik said. It boosts confidence in US capabilities while raising questions about those of rivals, although there are limits to whether it is on the operator.

US officials said no US aircraft or military personnel were lost during the raid on Venezuela. Of the 150 aircraft and nearly 200 US servicemen involved in the mission, one helicopter caught fire and seven servicemen were injured.

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