[TWZ] Growing tensions in the Caribbean could lead to a confrontation between U.S. combat aircraft and Venezuela’s hodgepodge of air defense systems.With the Trump administration’s counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean expanding to become a “non-international armed conflict,” the prospects of some kind of confrontation between the U.S. military and Venezuela are rising, too. On top of the counter-narcotics effort, some officials in the Trump administration are pushing to oust Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.
With the possibility of direct actions inland on cartels — now designated as unlawful combatants — becoming a real possibility, it’s worth taking a look at the air defense assets available to Venezuela, which comprise a somewhat unusual mix of older, lower-end equipment and smaller numbers of very capable systems, mainly Russian-supplied.
Yesterday, we reported on the first official imagery of the 10 U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs forward-deployed to the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico. These jets are now undertaking patrols in the region, with open-source flight trackers pointing to sorties off the coast of Venezuela.