Top 48 air forces in 2020 (based on aircraft quality and quantity)

[500]

The fleet numbers are from Flight International WAF 2021.

Air/Ground points:

F-16C = 1/1
F-16A = 0.7/0.8
F-16AM = 1/0.8
F-16A OCU = 1/0.9
F-16 block 52+ aka F-16I = 1.1/1.2
F-16 block 60 = 1.3/1.2
F-15A = 1.2/0.5
F-15C = 1.3/0.5
F-15E = 1.4/1.5
F-15S = 1.3/1.4
F-15SG = 1.5/1.5
F-18A = 1/1.1
F-18C = 1.05/1.15
F-18F = 1.3/1.3
F-2 = 1.3/1.2
F-16AM = 1/08
F-22 = 3/1
F-35A = 2.5/2.5
F-35B = 2.3/2.2
Mirage 2000 = 1/1
Typhoon (MESA radar) = 1.4/1.1
Rafale (PESA radar) = 1.3/1.2
Tornado IDS = 0.5/1.2
Tornado ADV = 1/0.6
F-4 = 0.3/0.6
F-4 Terminator = 0.6/1
Su-27 = 1.2/0.4
Su-27SM = 1.3/0.8
Su-35 = 1.4/1.2
MiG-29 = 0.9/0.5
MiG-29SMT = 1/1
Su-30MKI = 1.3/1.2
Su-30MKK = 1.2/1.2
MiG-21 aka J7 = 0.25/0.35
MiG-27 = 0.2/0.7
JF-17 = 0.9/0.8
AMX = 0.2/0.5
Mirage F.1 = 0.7/0.8
Mirage 3/5 = 0.25/0.35
Jaguar = 0.2/0.6
F-5 = 0.25/0.35
J-20 = 2.7/1
J-10 = 1/1
J-8 = 0.6/0.4
JH-7 = 0.5/1.1
Q-5 = 0.1/0.4
H-6 = 0/2

T-22M3 = 0/3
Tu-95 = 0/6
Tu-160 = 0/8
B-1B = 0/9
B-2A = 0/10
B-52H = 0/6.5

E-3, Phalcon, KJ-2000, Boeing 737 = 8/2
Saab, KJ-200 = 6/1.5
E-2C, ZDK-03 = 4/1

jet, A400 tankers = 2/6
KC-130, H-6 tankers = 1/4

=========================================================

Fleet numbers:

Australia

66 F-18A
24 F-18F
26 F-35A
6 Boeing 737 AEW&C
6 A-330 tanker

Azerbaijan

10 MiG-29
5 MiG-21
12 Su-25

Algeria

13 MiG-25
32 MiG-29
23 Su-24
57 Su-30MKA
3 Il-78MT

Belarus

4 Su-30
39 MiG-29
68 Su-25

Belgium

51 F-16AM

Brazil

47 F-5E
56 AMX
5 Erieye AEW
2 KC-130H tankers

China

235 J-10
20 J-20
99 Su-30MKK
231 Su-27 and J-11
24 Su-35
96 J-8
388 J-7 (MiG-21)
69 JH-7
118 Q-5
120 H-6 (Tu-16)
4 KJ-2000 AEW
25 KJ-500 and Y-8 AEW
3 IL-78 tanker
10 H-6 tanker

Chile

46 F-16A
13 F-5E
1 797 AEW
2 KC-130 tanker
3 KC-135 tanker

Canada

85 F-18A
2 A-310 tanker
4 KC-130

Denmark

44 F-16AM

Egypt

5 Su-35
24 Rafale
44 MiG-29M
218 F-16C
19 Mirage 2000
13 Alpha Jet
75 Mirage V
7 E-2C AEW

Finland

62 F-18C/D
1 C285 AEW

France

102 Rafale
132 Mirage 2000
4 E-3
14 KC-135
3 A330 tanker
4 A400 tanker

Germany

137 Typhoon
81 Tornado IDS
30 Tornado ECR
3 A310 tanker
4 A400 tanker

Greece

93 F-16C/D
60 F-16C block 52+
42 Mirage 2000
33 F-4E Icarus
4 Erieye AEW

India

242 Su-30MKI
5 Rafale
57 Mirage 2000
65 MiG-29
132 MiG-21Bis
17 Tejas
160 Jaguar
3 Phalcon AEW
2 ERJ-145 AEW
6 IL-78MKI

Indonesia

23 F-16C
10 F-16A
5 Su-27
11 Su-30MK2
23 Hawk 209
15 EMB-314
15 T-50
1 KC-130 tanker

Iran

26 F-14
19 MiG-29
12 Mirage F1
17 F-7
63 F-4E
38 F-5
23 Su-24
6 Boeing 707 tanker

Iraq

34 F-16IQ
21 Su-25
10 L-159

Israel

23 F-35A
25 F-15I
41 F-15 C/D
16 F-15 A/B
99 F-16I
125 F-16C/D
2 G550 AEW
7 KC-707 tanker
4 KC-130 tanker

Italy

13 F-35A
92 Typhoon
59 Tornado IDS
14 Tornado ECR
37 AMX
4 KC-767 tankers
6 KC-130 tankers
2 G550 AEW

Japan

17 F-35A/B
88 F-2
200 F-15C/D
39 F-4E
4 E-767 AEW
17 E-2C AEW
4 KC-767
2 KC-130

Jordan

44 F-16A MLU

Kazakhstan

16 Su-30
20 Su-27
24 MiG-29
20 MiG-31
12 MiG-27
3 MiG-23
13 Su-24
14 Su-25

South Korea

16 F-35A
59 F-15K
123 F-16C/D
44 F-16C block 52+
60 FA-50
71 F-4E
156 F-5E
4 Boeing 737 AEW
4 A330 tanker

North Korea

35 Mig-29
56 Mig-23
26 MiG-21
120 F-7
97 F-6
106 F-5
80 H-5
34 Su-25
18 Su-7

Malaysia

18 Su-30MKM
8 F-18D
13 Hawk 208
4 KC-130 tanker

Netherlands

12 F-35A
57 F-16A OCU
1 KDC-10

Norway

25 F-35
53 F-16AM

Oman

12 Typhoon
23 F-16C
10 Hawk 203

Pakistan

109 JF-17
13 F-16ADF
45 F-16A/B OCU
18 F-16C block 52+
69 Mirage III
90 Mirage V
135 F-7
5 Erieye AEW
4 ZDK-03 AEW
5 Il-76 tanker

Peru

9 MiG-29
12 Mirage 2000
7 Su-25
20 A-37

Poland

48 F-16C block 52+
29 MiG-29
32 Su-22

Russia

131 MiG-31BM
88 Su-35
71 Su-27SM
134 Su-30
20 Su-27
70 MiG-29
52 MiG-29SMT
110 Su-24
125 Su-34
195 Su-25
66 Tu-22M3
42 Tu-95
16 Tu-160
15 A-50 AEW
19 Il-78 tanker

Saudi Arabia

72 Typhoon
74 F-15C/D
70 F-15S
84 F-15SA
81 Tornado IDS
2 Saab 2000 AEW
5 E-3 AEW
7 707 tanker
6 A330 tanker
9 KC-130 tanker

Singapore

40 F-15SG
40 F-16C
20 F-16C block 52+
5 A330 tanker
4 G550 AEW
5 KC-130 tanker

Sweden

94 Gripen
2 Saab 340 AEW
1 KC-130 tanker

Switzerland

30 F/A-18C
36 F-5E

Spain

68 Typhoon
72 F-18A
4 A400 tanker
5 KC-130 tanker

Syria

20 MiG-29
2 MiG-25
87 MiG-23
51 MiG-21
39 Su-22
18 Su-24

Taiwan

55 Mirage 2000
140 F-16AM
129 F-CK-1
26 F-5E
6 E-2C

Thailand

11 JAS 39
14 F-16ADF
39 F-16A OCU
34 F-5
18 Alpha Jet
2 Saab 340 AEW

Turkey

211 F-16 C/D
34 F-16 block 50+
48 F-4 Terminator 2020
4 Boeing 737 AEW
7 KC-135 tanker

UAE

78 F-16E
59 Mirage 2000
2 Saab 340
3 A-330 tanker

UK

15 F-35B
119 Typhoon
3 E-3 AEW
9 A330 tanker

USA

266 A-10
26 AC-130J/U
59 B-1B
19 B-2A
74 B-52H
236 F-15C
219 F-15E
939 F-16C
178 F-22
116 F-35A
31 E-3 AEW
396 KC-135 tanker
58 KDC-10 tanker
36 KC-46 tanker
65 MC-130 tanker

Ukraine

24 MiG-29
32 Su-27
12 Su-24
13 Su-25

Uzbekistan

26 Su-27
39 MiG-29
20 Su-25

Vietnam

35 Su-30
11 Su-27
34 Su-22

Venezuela

22 Su-30MK
20 F-16A
6 F-5A
1 707 tanker


================================================

Final points:

1) USA - 14028
2) Russia - 3468
3) China - 3383
4) India - 1708
5) Saudi Arabia - 1647
6) Japan - 1406
7) Israel - 1352
8) South Korea - 1346
9) France - 1078
10) Turkey - 1049

11) Taiwan - 983
12) Egypt - 949
13) Pakistan - 933
14) Germany - 850
15) Italy - 771
16) Greece - 726
17) UK - 710
18) Australia - 661
19) Spain - 558
20) UAE - 530

21) Singapore - 520
22) North Korea - 378
23) Algeria - 370
24) Norway - 341
25) Iran - 325
26) Canada - 308
27) Sweden - 306
28) Syria - 297
29) Netherlands - 265
30) Kazakhstan - 258

31) Poland - 246
32) Thailand - 247
33) Finland - 215
34) Vietnam - 184
35) Uzbekistan - 181
36) Indonesia - 181
37) Ukraine - 171
38) Brazil - 170
39) Belarus - 166
40) Chile - 161

41) Belgium - 143
42) Switzerland - 141
43) Venezuela - 140
44) Denmark -128
45) Jordan - 128
46) Malaysia - 125
47) Oman - 121
48) Iraq - 116
49) Peru - 67

 

[Test7]

@500 bro i really wonder Israel Air Force. Israel has a small area. You have a very strong and large air force. I wonder how Israel can fit so many planes into this narrow area? I guess air bases are a part of social life.

 

[Zafer]

#4 position is where Turkey needs to be.

 

[Anmdt]

A Good comparison but in my opinion some points should be deducted due to logistic complexity when equipment from several sources have mixed in. ie. Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt.

 

[Glass🚬]

TuAF needs more fighters and tankers.

 

[adenl]

Some countries lack certain aircraft type and the number is too low, while others have ordered aircraft counted in. I'll take this list with a grain of salt.

 

[Zapper]

A Good comparison but in my opinion some points should be deducted due to logistic complexity when equipment from several sources have mixed in. ie. Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt.

Regarding IAF, 65% of our fighter jet fleet is Russian while over 30% is French considering Jaguar is an Anglo-French aircraft. Though we did have logistical issues with Russian suppliers in the past, most of em have been sorted out in recent times.

Also, the 132 Mig-21s are being phased out while actively being replaced by LCA-Tejas which will of course use domestic suppliers

 

[Zapper]

#4 position is where Turkey needs to get to.

Unlikely to happen since the countries listed in ranks 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 have active threat and adversaries which compels em to bolster fleet strength and capabilities of their respective AFs' for the foreseeable future

Also, three out of those five countries have indigenous fighter jet programs which will be mass produced down the lane

India: LCA, MWF, AMCA
South Korea: KAI - KFX
Japan: Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin, F-X

 

[Oublious]

 

[Oublious]

The fleet numbers are from Flight International WAF 2021.

View attachment 9071



Turkey

211 F-16 C/D
34 F-16 block 50+
48 F-4 Terminator 2020
4 Boeing 737 AEW
7 KC-135 tanker

We have more then 34 block 50+ fighters. The last purchase was of 30 new fighters. Before that we had a upgrade for 117 fighters. So the total should be 34 plus 117. 151 block50+. The only differences what i new is that the older fighters don't have CFT.

 

[Gary]

The top two world's air forces, by quality and quantity must be:

1. USAF
2. USN (Carrier air wing)

 

[dBSPL]

In the above list, there are 4 countries that can protect the operative power at a deterrent level in an embargo attack targeting the subsystem and logistics organization. These are USA, China, Russia and may be France. We can also add Israel to this list as an exception for some historical and political reasons. The situation will be understood when you look at the origin of the platforms already indexed by @ 500. Other than that, countries with strong air forces are either tightly linked to NATO infrastructure or have a historic strategic alliance at least with one of these leading countries.

What is not seen when looking at the list, but the main point to note is that today's some of emerging economies (or those seeking more independent/unique policy, if talk on European scale), with a historically strong tradition of air force organizations, are attempts to create independent defense and aviation ecosystems using the post-1990 political conjuncture.

Lets say emerging third branch; the technical and industrial success (or failure) of countries implementing these initiatives has the potential to cause dramatic changes in the lists like that above in the next decades.

It is the nature of things that emerging countries seek more independent foreign policy against hegemonic countries after a point. The transition of the world to a multipolar order again has a locomotive effect that strengthens this seek.

This is more evident when the origins and investors of the new generation air platform projects in the 2030-2040 range are examined. Two different projects have started in Europe, on the other hand, important Asian economies such as India, Korea and Indonesia attach great importance to national aviation programs. Also Turkey is onether country which has this objective. While these countries continued to procure services and systems in line with their historical strategic relations, they began to allocate (or plan) huge resources to the domestic aviation industries.

Therefore, although the list above has a methodology that can be regarded as quite successful, what it expresses shows just a platform-based and short-to-medium term projection that is free from any type of political conditions.

 

[Nilgiri]

This is just raw force potential.

How its deployed and integrated is another matter. That is open to near endless discussion/debate past US being clear no. 1....especially given US has no threat in its super-continent at all and has oceans separating from the threats on other continents. This mean USAF and USN can deploy near totally aggressively on other's turfs compared to what they can do in response. Every other country is thus complete different scope of debate given what is the role of the AF and the reaction and operation times involved w.r.t geography and economic space.

The UK for example ranked where it is by this raw force potential is also kind of silly given the high boost they get from other factors like integration (both vertical and horizontal and also with other service branches), NATO, deployed experience etc....i.e the multiplier value for AWACS and C4I is not really the numbers postulated here nor are they 1:1 equivalent between countries either in some general sense.

Some have brought up logistical issues (many country's platforms etc) and its valid point, but different AF's have done this to different degrees too (in institutional and realised operational level)....so for example Egypt and India are not really comparable for it (though seemingly both use multi-country platform).

India for example has such things as a dedicated TACDE school and long experience now in adding mirage and jaguar (in 80s) to a soviet "Core"....that it now takes forward with indigenous platforms too....whereas its far more recent phenomenon in Egypt (and the reasons for Egypt doing so are fairly different too).

Saudi Arabia also is very reliant on other countries and geopolitical realities, it is not very independent + sovereign military...so its high force potential in reality is very constrained.

I mean technically Ukraine SSR was one of the most powerful airforces by itself during cold war (and anyone can look at what they inherited even after soviet breakup), but it wouldnt really be counted separate to USSR for similar reasons...they were part and parcel of an overriding sovereignty/force structure.

 

[ekemenirtu]

I am at a loss here.

Where are the figures next to the different models of fighter aircrafts, bomber aircrafts, special mission and attack aircrafts from?

What are the national scores supposed to indicate? Would anybody be kind enough to explain?

From the original source, I can not find any such information.

 

[Indos]

Halo guys, why dont include Indonesia ????


We are definately above Malaysia

F 16 C/D block 52: 23
F16 A/B: 10 (being upgraded into block 52 standard (on going).
Su 27/32: 16
Hawk 200 (sidewinder only): 24
T50i (sidewinder only) : 15
Tanker: KC 130 B: 1

 

[Nilgiri]

Halo guys, why dont include Indonesia ????


We are definately above Malaysia

F 16 C/D block 52: 23
F16 A/B: 10 (being upgraded into block 52 standard (on going).
Su 27/32: 16
Hawk 200 (sidewinder only): 24
T50i (sidewinder only) : 15
Tanker: KC 130 B: 1

Another big glaring error in this list.

Somehow Oman is included, but not Indonesia....erm.

 

[Indos]

Another big glaring error in this list.

Somehow Oman is included, but not Indonesia....erm.

Yup, if COIN aircraft is included as well so there will be another 15 from Supertucano squadron

And Indonesian T50i Golden Eagle have been equipped with radar and sidewinder. It wasnt in the past.

 

[500]

Halo guys, why dont include Indonesia ????


We are definately above Malaysia

F 16 C/D block 52: 23
F16 A/B: 10 (being upgraded into block 52 standard (on going).
Su 27/32: 16
Hawk 200 (sidewinder only): 24
T50i (sidewinder only) : 15
Tanker: KC 130 B: 1

Mea culpa. Added to list.

 

[500]

I am at a loss here.

Where are the figures next to the different models of fighter aircrafts, bomber aircrafts, special mission and attack aircrafts from?

What are the national scores supposed to indicate? Would anybody be kind enough to explain?

From the original source, I can not find any such information.

There is a rank from global fire power, which counts only by quantity:

Military Aircraft Fleet Strength by Country (2024)

Ranking total aircraft fleet strength by country, from highest to lowest.

www.globalfirepower.com

Which is silly. There are many other ranks which use subjective opinions. I decided to make a rank based both on quality and quantity. Of course it is far from perfect but surelly better than global fire power approach.

A Good comparison but in my opinion some points should be deducted due to logistic complexity when equipment from several sources have mixed in. ie. Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt.

This would be very subjective. I wanted to use only the paramilitaries we can estimate well.

 

[Turko]

Without US Navy F18s the list seems meager.