China’s much-vaunted radars appear to be of little help as the US launches massive airstrikes against Venezuela.

• Chinese air defense radars in Venezuela did not change the game during the US invasion to capture Maduro.

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

• The lack of impact recently raises questions about both the radars and their operators.

Chinese-made anti-aircraft radars were available to Venezuela’s military when the US launched a surprise airstrike against the country earlier this month to capture former leader Nicolas Maduro. They seem to help a little.

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

Venezuela has China’s JY-27A mobile radars, which Beijing describes as a top-of-the-line system. The radar is said to be able to detect stealth assets such as the US F-22 and F-35 from up to 150 miles away.

The success of a surprise attack on the city of Caracas by American special operators, part of a larger mission that included not only stealth airpower but also older fourth-generation aircraft and helicopters, suggests that the defense did not go as planned. That may be in the operators rather than the technology.

After the raid, a Japanese journalist asked a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman what Beijing thought of the “large amount of military equipment” sold to Venezuela that was apparently of “little practical use.” A Chinese spokesman responded by condemning the US attack.

The Chinese-made JY-27A is a long-range radar used to detect and track enemy 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 that it has features designed to reduce congestion. A new version, the JY-27V, has since been developed.

When Venezuela purchased JY-27As from China last year, there were claims that the radars were able to lock onto several F-35B fighters off the coast of Venezuela, presenting a potential challenge to the U.S. 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 moments of conflict.” Perhaps they were unable to withstand sophisticated electromagnetic spectrum attacks, or may have been used improperly by their operators. Either way, if they were ineffective, they were less useful for air defense.

Radar systems inform air defense teams about where they need to target and what weapons they need to use. “If you don’t have working radars, you’re a sitting duck,” he said.

U.S. military leaders said the U.S. planes were able to defeat Venezuela’s air defenses, which are assessed to include a range 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 pieces are enabled but not the newer versions used by their respective exporters.

Later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth derided the effectiveness of Russian air defenses. The speech did not say anything about Chinese radar.

The key to air defense is how the network works together, and operator effectiveness is critical. In the case of Venezuela, it may have lacked the necessary conditions for a successful air defense operation.

A study by the Miami Strategic Intelligence Institute, a think tank that hosts experts on Latin America, assessed Venezuela’s air defenses to be in critical condition as of last year.

It said more than 60% of its radar fleet was operational, combat aircraft were not flying often, and the country received little maintenance support and spare parts from its exporters.

Venezuela bought Chinese-made radars and Russian-made surface-to-air missile batteries to modernize its air defenses, but hardware alone cannot compensate for internal weaknesses.

An analysis by The New York Times found that some of Venezuela’s air defense equipment is in storage or not operational, leaving it unprepared for a US attack. Reports also indicate that the Venezuelan military lacks spare parts and the technical background to operate air defense systems.

Even if the failure was on the part of Venezuela’s military, the ineffective performance of the Russian and Chinese systems sends a “very big message,” Sobolik said. This increases confidence in US capabilities when raising questions about rivals, although there are limits if it is in the operator.

No U.S. aircraft or military personnel were lost in the attack on Venezuela, according to U.S. officials. Among the 150 aircraft involved in the mission and about 200 US troops, one helicopter caught fire and seven soldiers were injured.

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