Overview
- Reports credit EA-18G Growlers with jamming Venezuelan radars and communications to open safe corridors for U.S. special-operations aircraft during the mission that led to Nicolás Maduro’s capture.
- The Navy aircraft focus on signals attack rather than bombing, using pods that generate deceptive returns and block locks from surface-to-air missiles to protect larger formations.
- The air package reportedly involved more than 150 U.S. aircraft, including fighters, bombers, drones and helicopters, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- Venezuela’s largely older Soviet- and Chinese-origin systems, including S-300 variants, were described as susceptible to the Growlers’ tactics by defense analysts cited in the coverage.
- The episode has sharpened attention on electronic-warfare modernization, with Australia operating Growlers and India pursuing EW upgrades to Sukhoi-30MKI jets in lieu of a comparable dedicated platform.