Mike Baker

When former socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the purchase of Russian air defense systems in 2009, it was done with great fanfare as part of a military modernization drive.

Chavez portrayed the weapons as a deterrent to keep U.S.

aircraft at bay.

He said at the time, quote, with these rockets, it's going to be very difficult for foreign planes to come and bomb us, end quote.

Apparently not.

In practice, Venezuela struggled almost immediately to sustain the sophisticated hardware.

U.S.

officials familiar with classified assessments say Caracas repeatedly ran short on spare parts and personnel.

Over time, what had been billed as a formidable deterrent eventually degraded into a little more than a static asset.

And on the ground, the breakdown was visible.

Satellite imagery and video footage shows U.S.

aircraft striking locations where BUK systems were stored rather than deployed.

In La Guaira,

Warehouses containing BUK systems were destroyed.

Similar scenes played out in Quartier Lamar, where bombed-out storage facilities, revealed launchers and command vehicles parked inside.

Even Venezuela's widely publicized stockpile of Russian-made portable surface-to-air missile systems failed to alter the outcome of the American operation.

Maduro had repeatedly boasted that his regime possessed thousands of them ready to defend Venezuelan skies.

Only one apparent launch of those systems was captured on video, followed by overwhelming American counterfire.

U.S.

officials say that that American response likely discouraged further attempts.