Before Maduro raid, US tricked Venezuelan air defence operators into revealing their locations

While much of the attention has focused on the low-flying helicopters that swept into Caracas and whisked away President Nicolas Maduro, the most sophisticated part of ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ was likely the electronic warfare attack that enabled such a seamless incursion and extraction.

The Trump administration has said that around 150 aircraft —including fighter planes, bombers, and drones— participated in the mission, which involved suppressing Venezuelan air defence systems. Explosions in Caracas were caught on camera ahead of the raid on Maduro’s compound.

But brute American firepower that destroyed anti-aircraft and anti-missile batteries or prevented Venezuelan fighter planes from taking off was just one aspect of the campaign. There are indications that US electronic warfare specialists tricked Venezuelan air defence operators into revealing their exact locations.

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How the US tricked Venezuelan air operators

Venezuela primarily relied on Russian-made air defence systems like the S-300, Pechora-2M, Buk-M2E, and Pantsir-S1.

While Russia has flaunted its air defence systems as state-of-the-art, they have been repeatedly battered in Russia’s war with Ukraine and in US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Notably, Iran had almost identical air defences to Venezuela and Israeli attacks in 2024 left them “virtually naked”.

In the early hours of Saturday, in addition to destroying missile launchers, US forces also targeted Venezuelan radars, according to analysts.

Central to this electronic warfare attack were EA-18G Growlers and F-35C aircraft. The EA-18G Growler is an electronic warfare-centric variant of the F/A-18 fighter jet, while the F-35 is a multirole fighter equipped with some of the world’s most advanced electronic warfare tools.

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The tactic deployed by US forces was simple and devastatingly effective.

As per analysts who studied the operation, US forces initiated electromagnetic jamming against Venezuelan radar systems, creating so much ’noise’ that the radars could not detect incoming threats. To overcome this noise, radar operators reportedly cranked up the power of their radars and other transmitters. That was likely their fatal mistake.

As soon as Venezuelan air defence operators increased transmitter power, they effectively telegraphed their locations to US forces. On the electromagnetic spectrum, these positions ’lit up’ and were then bombed.

In short, once US forces forced operators to boost power, those radars became beacons and guided American strikes with pinpoint accuracy. That is how US forces likely outsmarted Venezuelan air defence operators and Russian air defence systems.