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Venezuela Declares 5,000 Igla-S Missiles in Nationwide Defense Net to Deter U.S. Caribbean Flights.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said his forces have at least 5,000 Russian-made Igla-S man-portable surface-to-air missiles across the country, framing them as a counterbalance to expanded U.S. operations near the Caribbean. The claim revives debate over regional airspace risks and the growing density of Venezuela’s layered air-defense network.
On 23 October 2025, Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro publicly claimed his forces have “no fewer than 5,000” Russian-made Igla-S man-portable surface-to-air missiles positioned nationwide, framing the stockpile as a direct counter to expanded US military activity around the Caribbean. The statement revives long-running friction over sovereignty, counternarcotics missions and regional security, and matters because large numbers of modern MANPADS can reshape the air risk calculus for surveillance, rotary-wing and low-altitude missions near Venezuelan airspace, as reported by CNN.
The Igla-S is a Russian-made, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile system designed to target low-flying aircraft using a dual-band infrared seeker that resists flares and decoys (Picture Source: Venezuelan MoD)
President Maduro’s focus on MANPADS (MAN-Portable Air-Defense missile System) SA-24 Igla-S fits a broader picture of Venezuelan point-defense layers built over the past decade, in which shoulder-fired systems complement legacy short-range air defenses and anti-air artillery. Recent technical reviews describe an inventory that pairs MANPADS such as the Russian Igla-S with Sweden’s laser-guided RBS-70, backed by mobile batteries and radar coverage designed to complicate any attacker’s route selection at low altitude. The concept is not to defeat a modern air force outright but to raise attrition and force higher-risk flight profiles.
Publicly known Russian shoulder-fired systems in Venezuelan service center on the 9K338 Igla-S (NATO: SA-24 “Grinch”). The missile uses a dual-band infrared seeker intended to reject flares and can engage targets between roughly 500 m and 6 km in range and up to about 3.5 km in altitude, according to Rosoboronexport. Reuters previously reported in 2017 that a Venezuelan military document listed 5,000 Russian-made MANPADS, underscoring how today’s claim aligns with earlier indications of a very large stockpile by regional standards. Open-source assessments also note the continued presence of Sweden’s RBS-70 as a non-Russian, laser beam-riding complement in Venezuelan units.
From a capability standpoint, Igla-S occupies the upper end of legacy infrared MANPADS families. Compared with the US FIM-92 Stinger, which commonly lists around 4.8 km range and up to roughly 3.8 km ceiling, Igla-S advertises a slightly longer reach to 6 km but a similar altitude envelope; both rely on passive seekers and are optimized for helicopters, low-flying transports, drones and CAS aircraft rather than high-altitude strike platforms. The RBS-70, by contrast, is heavier and tripod-mounted, trades portability for laser beam-riding guidance and higher practical accuracy against countermeasures, and can reach out to around 9 km with newer Bolide missiles, giving Venezuelan defenders a different engagement geometry that is less vulnerable to infrared decoys. In effect, Venezuela’s mixed MANPADS layer forces attackers to contend with both heat-seeking and laser-guided threats at short ranges.
Strategically, a distributed stock of thousands of MANPADS alters US air-asset risk in several concrete ways. Geopolitically, it amplifies deterrent signaling toward Washington and regional partners by raising the political cost of low-altitude reconnaissance and presence missions near Venezuelan borders. Geostrategically, it densifies the air-defense picture around ports, airfields and urban corridors, complicating options for special-operations infiltration, combat search and rescue and humanitarian corridor establishment that rely heavily on helicopters and low-flying fixed-wing aircraft. Militarily, it pushes US mission planners to higher altitudes, longer standoff munitions and more extensive suppression and deception packages, as recent air-defense assessments caution that Venezuela’s mobile, varied SHORAD network would have to be taken seriously in any contingency. A secondary concern, highlighted in broader studies of MANPADS worldwide, is proliferation risk: large national stocks, if poorly secured, can threaten civil aviation and neighboring states should diversion occur.
Maduro’s new on-air tally, echoing earlier documentation and resurfacing amid heightened US deployments, signals that Venezuela intends to harden the lowest layer of its airspace and shape the behavior of foreign aircraft without firing a shot. Whether the exact number is 5,000 or somewhat different, the presence of modern Igla-S alongside RBS-70 gives Caracas a credible capacity to punish low-altitude incursions, raise operational risk for US assets in the Caribbean approaches and add complexity to any coercive scenario. For regional stability, the central issue now is not the announcement itself but how both sides manage the escalatory dynamics of dense short-range air defenses facing off against an advanced air arm, an equation in which miscalculation could carry outsized consequences for civilian air traffic, maritime interdiction operations and the wider diplomatic track.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.