russian propagandists, citing Western media, report that against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, russia plans to send strategic bombers to the country. They claim that Moscow is a "long-standing strategic partner" of Caracas and already has experience redeploying its Tu-160 bombers there.
The last time this happened was seven years ago, in 2018, during the U.S. President Donald Trump's first term, shortly after it became known that he was considering military action in Venezuela.
Read more: Argentina Needs 6 More Months to Start Integrating First F-16s It Got Instead of Ukraine
Since there have been no official comments on this possibility, the idea of redeploying even a small number of strategic bombers to Venezuela is more likely media hype than a real prospect. Although for russia this would be a demonstration of force, as it has shown recently with the Iskander missile system launchers in Kaliningrad Oblast.
At the same time, regarding the Tu-160, russia currently does not have enough of these aircraft to use them in such a way. In May, it was reported that russians may have between 12 and 18 Tu-160 strategic bombers in service. As of the end of spring this year, five of them were undergoing repairs, and russia is working on two new Tu-160s.
Therefore, russia has a fairly limited number of these aircraft, and under combat conditions it is unlikely that additional boards would be easily available. As for strategic bombers, the situation is as follows: the number of Tu-95MS aircraft is estimated at 40–60 units, though some are not combat-ready, and losses from Operation Spiderweb should also be considered.
As for the Tu-22M3 bombers, there are fewer than 55, and the situation is similar to that of the Tu-95MS—some are not combat-ready.
Another interesting question concerns Venezuela's air defense, since aircraft need protection.
It is represented primarily by Russian and Soviet systems, namely the S-300VM, Buk-M2, S-125 Pechora-2M anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as the Igla MANPADS and Zu-23-2 anti-aircraft autocannons. In addition, there are the Mistral and RBS-70 MANPADS.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that Venezuela has a negligible number of combat-ready Su-30MKV and F-16 aircraft, yet still chose to provoke the U.S.
Read more: Greece May Skip F-16 Upgrades for More F-35 Opening Rare Opportunity for Ukraine
