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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   24057 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 29, 2025

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Venezuela did not have air defenses deployed.

What term besides "deployed" would you prefer for the BukM2 the US destroyed in Caracas and the air defense systems that appeared in the area after probing by US bombers?

From your own article:

Venezuela’s air defense systems and combat aircraft were largely non-operational before recent U.S. strikes, according to multiple sources familiar with the condition of the country’s military equipment, citing long-standing maintenance failures and a shortage of spare parts linked to Russia’s unmet support obligations.

The situation was described as more severe for Venezuela’s long-range air defense assets. The S-300V systems deployed by the country were said to have been in a non-combat-ready state for more than a year, with no meaningful restoration work completed. The systems reportedly lacked functional components and could not be returned to service without external technical support.

As regards Buks, they were just parked in the same spot for months, were likely unmanned, and thus destroying them was a trivial matter.

Venezuela had no combat-ready military. It's all a LARP.

If you keep reading,

According to the sources, Venezuela had formally fielded 12 Russian-supplied Buk-M2E surface-to-air missile systems, but only five were in operational condition.

Venezuela had no combat-ready military.

On the timeline of the Twitter source you cite, Venezuelan short-ranged air defenses (which are really the relevant threat; long range air defenses are greatly reduced in effectiveness against low-flying aircraft) were reportedly active.

I agree that the Venezuelan military isn't in great shape, and they certainly weren't ready (despite having everything but an RVSP in terms of indications), but a lot of conflict is in the prep work, which the US demonstrated. Anyway, between this and Hostomel I think we can say that kino heliborne assaults are probably with us to stay, and simply forcing enemy planners to have to consider the possibility of an airborne assault at any given point throughout a massive area is its own W.

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