Recently, some famous Russian military news sites said that 65% of the Su-30MK2 fighters of the Venezuelan Air Force are not capable of fighting
Currently, due to the Covid-19 epidemic, Russian military experts cannot directly repair faulty Su-30MK2 fighters. And Venezuela also does not have the ability to overhaul or buy new fighters. The Venezuelan Air Force intends to keep only a portion of the Su-30MK2 fighter squadron in good technical condition, while the remaining fighters are more likely to be used as a source of spare parts.
In early 2020, it was reported that the Venezuelan Air Force still had about 11 Su-30MK2s in the combat component. The persistent political crisis is said to have severely affected the economy, plus the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the deep drop in oil prices, leaving Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense with little funding to maintain operated for its Su-30MK2 squadron.
There are also many doubts about the quality of Russian Su-30MK2 fighter. There have been quite a few complaints from partners who bought this multi-role fighter line. The event that caused the most notorious for the Su-30MK2 was the fact that the Indonesian Air Force discovered a technical error of cracking the airframe on two aircraft that had only spent a few dozen hours of operation.
In addition, the sharp decline in the number of Su-30MK2s of Venezulea is believed to be due to the fact that Venezulea Air Force still served with many US F-16 light fighters.
