Venezuela Installs Powerful Anti-Aircraft Weapons

[Purveyor]

Venezuela is in the process of installing a powerful anti-aircraft weapons system to protect against incursions into its airspace, President Nicolas Maduro announced.

"We are installing the most powerful system in the world in all mountain ranges, mountains, corridors, in the Venezuelan plains, along maritime and territorial borders. Our homeland is unassailable, nobody will be able to touch even an inch of our homeland, it is sacred," Maduro said Wednesday in a televised broadcast from eastern Sucre state, aired by state-run VTV.

Maduro said the anti-aircraft weapons system is being installed along the mountain range that runs through eastern Venezuela "so that some foreign airplane will never be able to enter and desecrate the sacred sky of the Venezuelan homeland", reported Xinhua.

MORE...

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/venezuela-installs-powerful-anti-aircraft-weapons-113071800306_1.html

[Cleita]

1. And so it begins.eom

[Igel]

2. Better.

But the video is in Spanish and talks over Maduro.

http://www.cubatv.cu/video/962a31c4efc511e29139001422ff22f1/maduro-anuncia-instalacion-de-un-poderoso-sistema-antiaereo/

From Russia, with love.

Interestingly, though, I usually translate "patria" as fatherland. Russian "rodina" I usually have as "motherland." A bit of etymological bias, but the connection with madre is obvious (just as rodina with rodit' is obvious).

[Catherina]

3. Here's the video of him saying what's in the OP

and here's the system. It's the S-300VM with a 200km radius at up to 30 thousand feet, state of the art.



http://prensapcv.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/venezuela-instala-el-sistema-de-defensa-antiaerea-mas-poderoso-del-mundo/


The S-300VM (NATO reporting name SA-23 Gladiator\Giant) is a Russian anti-ballistic missile system. The system is designed to defeat short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, aeroballistic and cruise missiles, fixed wing aircraft, as well as loitering ECM platforms and precision-guided munitions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-300VM

Here it is in action

Delivery of the S-300VM marks a significant achievement in the development of a comprehensive, multi-tier air-defence system for Venezuela that also includes radars, command centres, medium-range S-125-2M Pechora (SA-3 'Goa') self-propelled air defence systems and a mix of short-range 9K338 Igla-S manportable surface-to-air missiles and ZU-23-2 23 mm twin anti-aircraft guns.

http://www.janes.com/article/11792/venezuela-takes-delivery-of-s-300vm-air-defence-system

[Lurks Often]

8. And entirely useless against stealth aircraft

While I don't expect that the US will attack Venezuela in the foreseeable future, one or two B-2 bombers would make the entire defense system a pile of really expensive scrap metal.

[bluestate10]

13. Maduro may want to waste a little more cash and paint those mobile systems pink.

The pink color may help because it may make the US military hesitant to take them the fuck out after painting them with positioning beams that they can't escape or outrun. Venezuela has another demigod leading it, what a damned shame.

[JoeyT]

19. Pink?

Yeeeeeep. No homophobia here! Not even a little. Nope. Not a bit.

[COLGATE4]

4. Well, that's another boatload of money

being poured down a rat hole instead of being used to better the economy. Unless of course Maduro is expecting the Bolivians to invade.

[hack89]

5. Considering the stellar performance of Russian high tech systems in recent wars ..oh wait.

I am sure it makes them feel safer. It won't make a difference.

[bluestate10]

10. A false sense of security is better than no sense of security at all, I guess.

Or maybe Maduro has pissed a lot of money down a drain.

[greytdemocrat]

6. Damn!!!

There goes my invasion plans!! Shot to hell!!!

[backscatter712]

7. Well, given the history, who can blame 'em? n/t

[bluestate10]

9. It would take our Air Force and Navy about one week to take all of them out.

The path to resolving disputes isn't to put up more weapons that will get fucking wiped out by a superior force. That path taken by Maduro is fucking stupid and akin to pissing into a wind that is blowing into one face.

[stevenleser]

24. You are being generous. More like 1 minute, and with no losses.

If Maduro has the US in mind with these purchases, he is a complete idiot. I'm guessing the purchases are for defense against folks like Chile and Colombia?

If it came down to it, the US has a range of options that would remove these SAM sites quickly and with zero losses, ranging from stand off cruise missiles from Navy ships, to stealth fighters and bombers. The sites would be destroyed before Venezuela knew what hit them.

[mick063]

11. Anti Drone warfare.

You knew it was coming.

Our answer?

Let's pump several billion into a skunkworks to maintain our edge. The seniors can make up the extra costs by cutting their cat food rations.

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. I thought they couldn't even supply enough asswipe

and they're putting in anti-aircraft? For what?

If we have enough economic hit men down there to fuck up their supply chain for asswipe, why do we need to do flyovers?

[JoeyT]

22. We can't supply health care, food,

heating, infrastructure repairs, or living wages to our population, and we still spend a hundred times their GDP on military shit.

And we do it while sneering at other countries because they can't afford the massive amount of stuff we can. If they'd just learn to starve their children and old people a little better, they might be able to afford the good stuff too.

[Archae]

14. One of the biggest signs of budding dictatorships...

Lots of stuff to go "boom," even if it's not needed.

[Purveyor]

16. Indeed. I trust the USA has no mirror to look into in this regard? eom

[Renew Deal]

15. He's level of propaganda rantings are North Korean-like

"The homeland will not be desecrated" (pounds fist here)

[KoKo]

33. Uh oh....The only use of "Homeland" I know that's in current use is the USA..

The only other use I can remember of the "Homeland" was by Hitler.

Do you have a link for the usage you are describing?

[flamingdem]

17. Meanwhile a poignant scene of obsolete weapons going for repair and sugar stuck in the Panama Canal

* I read that the Korean sailors destroyed the crane and other parts of the ship, all 35 are under arrest


Questions still surround the cargo of sugar and what Cuba called "obsolete" Soviet-era weapons which it said it was sending halfway around the world to be repaired in North Korea.

The discovery has put the already isolated Asian nation under increased diplomatic pressure because the cargo is suspected of being in breach of a U.N. arms embargo against Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile program.

For Cuba, the benefits of smuggling out-of-date weapons to North Korea did not seem to make up for the potential pitfalls, experts said.

"It's baffling. It's hard to believe Cuba would risk so much for so little," said Frank Mora, the Pentagon's senior official for Latin America during president Obama's first term.

---
Following the vessel's seizure, Cuban officials contacted Panama and made a request on Saturday that it be released and allowed to continue its journey.


Panamanian security officials discovered the weaponry hidden under sugar sacks on Monday. It was not until the next evening that Cuba said it was loaded with 240 tons of Soviet-era missile equipment, MiG fighter jets and other arms.

Cuba has not said a word since. The Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
"That's unusual. They never stay silent when they feel under attack. It looks like someone screwed up," said Mora, who is now the head of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University.


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/north-korean-ship-carrying-sugar-donation-cuba-told-004002317.html#TAlPGdL

[Purveyor]

18. IMO it says more about the mindset of Latin American versus how bigger our 'cocks of military might'

is in regards to them...

The fact that they view they are threatened by the 'West' is notable and shouldn't be dismissed.

[geek tragedy]

21. Maybe he could start some terra alerts about the Yankees impending invasion plans

The Chavistas use the evil US bogeyman much like Bush used the terrists to scare the population for political ends.

[JoeyT]

25. Yeah, everyone knows we never did anything in Latin America.

Yep. Not a thing. Totally innocent. Hands clean. Can't imagine where they're getting that crazy shit from.

[geek tragedy]

26. Just like everyone knew there was no such thing

as terrorist attacks.

I can't imagine where Bush got that crazy shit from.

[JoeyT]

27. Really? Al Qaeda is criticizing

us for military buildup while denying terrorism exists? Because that's the relevant comparison in your example: The people that caused the buildup and have no moral high ground to speak from yelling about how there's no reason for the buildup.

On a side note: I wonder if I'm a person of interest for how often I google "Al Qaeda". I can never freaking remember how to spell it. I always want to put a "U". Probably not. "He's either a terrorist or a dumbass: Look at his playlist, he's a dumbass."

[geek tragedy]

31. I guess y'all can tell me "we told you so" after Obama invades Venezuela and

the Venezuelan government's claim that the US gave St. Hugo cancer has been scientifically proven.

It is rather touching to see such blind, naive faith in someone else's government.

P.S. unless you're googling in Arabic or Pashtun, probably not getting flagged by the NSA.

[JoeyT]

35. Obama isn't going to invade Venezuela.

I'm not 100% why he's actually buying the stuff: If he thinks Obama is going to invade, he's paranoid. If he's just trying to pull a tough guy routine, then he's probably playing smart politics.

Even if I were to think Obama was going to invade, I don't think we'd do it with troops. I don't think we'd use drones, either. I think we'd use the CIA.

[geek tragedy]

38. It seems like we agree more than we realize. nt

[geek tragedy]

20. These are socialist weapons, so this is a good thing, right? nt

[JoeyT]

23. So much unintentional irony in this thread.

I always thought imbibing the solvents in Kiwi would dissolve teeth and possibly kill you, but I guess it doesn't do as much damage as I always thought it would.

[hrmjustin]

28. Seems like a waste of money that could have been better spent.

[Adsos Letter]

29. Maginot Line redux. n/t

[DirkGently]

30. Kick for visibility of all the rah-rah "We'd kick your ass" bullshit in this thread.

[Neofeudal Serf]

34. Some of the replies in this thread call to mind the scene in Idiocracy

where the protagonist's lawyer damn near cums in his pants at the sight of his own car being shot to blazing bits.

[DirkGently]

37. That movie is terrifyingly prophetic.

Ow. My balls.

[AllINeedIsCoffee]

32. Meanwhile...

[JoeyT]

36. Meanwhile we've got

poor people starving, people dying of lack of health care, people that can't find jobs, people that can find jobs that don't pay enough to live on, elderly people working that should have long been able to retire that can't, people being evicted from their homes, often illegally, and we spend more than the next several countries combined on weapons.

But you should keep telling yourself that we're all superior and stuff.