Boeing
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The German navy is set to field five Boeing P-8A maritime patrol aircraft
13,636 active aircraft are owned by the US military – narrowed from almost 1,200 to 903. Notably though, while North Korea has an on-paper strength of 946 aircraft, this figure has remained unchanged in our directory for several years due to a lack of reliable fleet information. In a recent report, the US Defense Intelligence Agency argued that the majority of Pyongyang’s 572 combat aircraft are operationally obsolete, and added that its best assets – 56 Mikoyan MiG-23s, 35 RAC MiG-29s and 34 Sukhoi Su-25s – would experience “considerable difficulty” in any flare-up against South Korea’s military. Despite its concern over the growing capability of so-called great power rivals Beijing and Moscow, Washington’s air power dominance remains apparent. Its armed forces top all six of our directory’s main aircraft usage categories, and their combined fleet strength of 13,246, or 25% of the global total, is greater
than those of the next five-ranked nations combined: Russia, China, South Korea, India and Japan. The first seven positions in our Top 10 ranking of the global military fleet by nation remain unchanged from last time. But a net change of just nine aircraft has propelled Egypt from tenth place to eighth, while Turkey also moved above France into ninth thanks to a total which is just two greater. For the first time, the F-35 appears in our combat aircraft Top 10 ranking, with 445 aircraft in this category. Another 178 are currently classed as dedicated training assets, boosting the total in-service fleet of the type to 623 examples. The US armed services account for 65% of this total, with another nine nations now operating the type – including Denmark, which received its first examples during 2021. Notably, our ranking in the tanker category only includes nine aircraft types, with both the A400M and KC-390 recorded under their primary transport role.
Worldwide Top 10 active aircraft types Combat aircraft Type
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Special mission Active fleet
F-16 2,248 Su-27/30 1,063 F-15 963 F-18 893 MiG-29 822 Eurofighter Typhoon 512 Su-25 474 F-35 445 J-7 445 F-5 412 Other 6,436 Total 14,713
Source: Cirium fleets data
10 FlightGlobal
Share
15% 7% 7% 6% 6% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 44% 100%
Type
1. King Air 2. P-3 3. EA-18G 4. 737 5. E-2 6. 707 7. C295/CN235 8. C-130 9. Y-8 10. Il-18 Other Total
Tanker Active fleet
Share
224 210 164 163 130 91 67 61 59 53 788 2,010
11% 10% 8% 8% 7% 5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 39% 100%
Type
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
KC-135 C-130 767 DC-10 A330 Il-78 707 747 A310 Other
Total
Active fleet
Share
415 188 58 52 44 38 19 3 2 0
51% 23% 7% 6% 5% 4% 2% 1% 1% 0%
819
100%
