Military airpower has been used in warfare since the early 20th century, serving as a critical tool for armed forces. While the number of aircraft in an air force doesn't necessarily indicate how capable an air force is, it is still an important factor.
According to FlightGlobal's 2024 World Air Forces report, there are around 53,401 military aircraft in the world today. The total number of military aircraft actually includes all fixed-wing planes and helicopters from the air forces, armies, navies, and countries’ special forces.
It comes as no surprise that the US has the world's largest military aircraft fleet. America's air strength is larger than the combined forces of Russia, China, India, South Korea, and Japan. In fact, it accounts for almost 40% of global military expenditures, spending over $800bn annually.
Last Friday, US President Donald Trump awarded Boeing a contract to build the US Air Force's most sophisticated fighter jet yet, the F-47, surpassing the F-22 of Lockheed Martin. The F-47 is said to be the world’s first crewed sixth-generation fighter operated through the Next Generation Air Dominance Programme (NGAD) and will have stealth, penetration and manoeuvring capabilities that far exceed those of the current US fleet.
A number of planes have been testing the programme’s technologies for the last five years, flying hundreds of hours. F-47’s engineering and manufacturing development contract is worth more than $20bn.
A distant second
Russia comes in second but has only one-third of the US air capacity. It has an ageing fleet and has also lost over 220 aircraft since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022. Next is China, which announced weeks ago its new sixth-generation fighter jet. The warplane combines stealth capabilities, large payload capacity, supersonic speeds, and extended range with the versatility to conduct air-to-air or air-to-ground missions.
