The military and political leadership of Venezuela has issued an update on the armed forces development strategy for the next few years until 2030. The roadmap now presumes that obtaining components for russian-made weapons will be difficult or impossible, therefore they need to invest in recovery and modernization of available Western equipment, Infodefensa reports.
Essentially, Defense Express notes, the Venezuelan military has admitted it will be easier to acquire spare parts for French-made AMX-30 tanks than for russian T-72s.
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More specifically, the article says Venezuela's development strategy covers all branches of its armed forces and is based on two postulates: the ban on the supply of new weapons to the Venezuelan regime is still in effect and that "reliable suppliers of military materiel to the South American country are currently involved, in some way, in international armed conflicts, which limits the supplies."
Especially in the second premise, we can find a direct and unambiguous assessment that russia and its military-industrial complex are so bound by the war against Ukraine that it is now unable to satisfy the demands of their satellites, even those as loyal as Venezuela.
Having considered this issue, the Venezuelan military top brass prescribes a different approach — to focus on maintaining the capabilities of Western types of equipment and weapons in the national forces.
It may sound unexpected, but the Venezuelan armed forces actually operate a palette of russian and Western armament, some models are not just rarities but specimens belonging in the museum.
#Venezuela 2S19 Msta-S, T-72B1V, BTR-80A pic.twitter.com/6WX8QH4lBE— Aldin (@aldin_aba) July 6, 2016
For example, according to the IISS study The Military Balance 2024, the Venezuelan army has 92 T-72B main battle tanks, 81 AMX-30 tanks, 78 Scorpion-90 light tanks, and 31 AMX-13 light tanks. As for less heavy vehicles, the Venezuelan army operates 123 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, 114 BTR-80A armored personnel carriers of Soviet or russian origin, and almost 80 American-made Dragoon 300 wheeled AFVs and 80 V-100/V-150 combat vehicles.
The artillery arsenal of the Venezuelan army formally comprises 48 Msta-S, 13 Nona-SVK self-propelled guns, 24 BM-21 Grad and 12 Smerch multiple launch rocket systems, and on the other hand, 13 French 155-mm Mk F3 self-propelled systems (on the AMX-13 chassis) and 12 towed 155-mm M114 howitzers, towed 105-mm M101 and OTO Melara Mod 56 howitzers, 40 pieces of each, as well as 20 LAR-160 rocket launchers.
Even aviation in Venezuela presents a certain paradox: on paper, this country maintains 21 Su-30MKV fighters and 18 F-16 aircraft, although their combat capability is unclear.
That said, the most notable situation emerges in the niche of air defense because, in Venezuela, it relies exclusively on russian short- and medium-range air defense systems: 44 S-125 Pechora-2M, nine Buk-M2E short-range missile systems, and 12 S-300VM mid-range systems.
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