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My top seven air forces
Note: only frontline and modern aircraft are included in this assessment
1. USAF
- 187 F-22 Raptor
- 500 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
- 334 F-15E Strike Eagle to be equipped with AESA
- 178 F-15C Eagle to be equipped with AESA
2. Russian Federation Air Force
- 11 Su-35S
- 25 Su-30
- 17 Su-34
- 40 MiG-29M
3. People's Liberation Air Force
- 6+ J-10B
- 6 J-15
- 100 J-11B
- 210 J-10A
- 73 Su-30MKK
- 24 Su-30MK2
4. L'armee de l'air
- 93 Dassault Rafale
- 37 Dassault Mirage-200C-2F
5. Royal Air Force
- 86 Eurofighter Typhoon
6. Royal Saudi Air Force
- 72 Eurofighter Typhoon
- 72 F-15E Strike Eagle
- 109 F-15C Eagle
7. Indian Air Force
- 146 Su-30MKI
- 48 MiG-29UPG
- 9 MiG-29K
well , I really don't care about this article that wrote by a Zionist but IMO those countries who producing their air-craft or their air-craft avionic by themselves are stronger ... for some simple reason ...
a little story :
in Iran-Iraq war , USA gave Iranian F-14 radar's codes to France and France used those codes to equip Iraq's mirage's electronic warfare and in the end , Iranian F-14 couldn't targets those mirages ....
for example :
if a war begin between Saudi Arabia and Israel ( or Greece and Turkiye ), I'm sure Saudi's air craft couldn't take down even one of Israel air craft ...
it is not because their air crafts or their pilots are weak , this is because USA would give Saudi's air-craft radar's codes to Israel ( IMO USA already gave it to Israel )...
that why I believe a simple weapon that you produce in your country is more reliable and more useful compare a modern weapon that you buying from foreign countries ....
You can't just rank air forces, because each has their own purposes, roles, and emphases. There are so many factors that aren't considered here.
Some major factors:
- EW aircraft: for example, the IAI Phalcon and the KJ-2000 might outperform the E-3C simply due to their AESA radar.
- Long range support: in this case US and Italy would have an advantage due to their use of KC-135
- Air to air weaponry: the European Meteor, Chinese PL-21, AIM-120D needs to be mentioned here
- Aircraft technology vs numbers: just because one is larger doesn't mean one is more effective. Egypt should not be ahead of France.
Finally, there are a few notes to keep in mind:
- Of China's 450 Flankers, at least 50 of those are the highly advanced indigenous J-11B which uses powerful engines, radar absorbent material, composites, AESA, MAW, IRST, glass cockpit
- India's Su-30MKI are receiving AESA upgrades as well as more powerful engines
- We are on a point where many air forces are inducting more advanced fighters, such as with China inducing the J-10B, J-15, and India inducting MiG-29K, Russia inducting Su-35S, etc.
I do not know what you mean by giving away the radar codes.............as far as i know...Radars don't really communicate codes....but rather send out pulses of Electromagnetic radiation. If you mean giving out the frequency...then yes. But considering a pulse Doppler radar of 20th Century would hardly be a task to crack and figure out.....most 21st Century EW pods would be able to look up its frequency and inform the pilot that a particular radar is active and in what vicinity.
Right now based on equipment RSAF, InAF and IsAF are very close to each other, competing for 4th place. But India is going to open gap:
MMRCA.
Continues procurement of Su-30MKI.
Modernization of Su-30MKI with AESA radars.
LCA.
5th place maybe taken by Turkey: block 52+, Boeing-737 AEW&C, F-35.
This is my forecast for 2020:
1) USA
2) Russia
3) China
4) India
5) Turkey-Israel-KSA
Later on:
1) USA
2) China
3) Russia
4) India
5) Turkey
6) Israel-KSA
You do know that China's economy is 4 times larger than Russia's and growing twice as fast?
Unless Russia does a Soviet Union and commits 12-14% of GDP to defence till 2020, China will easily surpass Russia to become no 2 by 2020.
Also are you aware that China will most probably become larger GDP-wise than the US by 2017-2018 and still keep growing several times quicker than the US for a decade or more after that?
In the longer term, China will also easily surpass the US to become the mightiest military in the world.
Without a strong economy it is not possible to build and sustain a large military.
I was bored and decided to estimate airforces strength. I wrote down the list of active aircrafts for each air force and then counted score.
Here is method I used. F-16C I used as base: 1 air-air point/1 air to ground point. For other aircrafts my estimates are follow:
China
190 J-10
100 Su-30MKK
189 Su-27 and J-11
180 J-8
280 J-7 (MiG-21)
60 JH-7
180 Q-5
110 H-6 (Tu-16)
AEW&C: 5 KJ-2000, 2 KJ-200
tanker: 8 IL-78, 10 H-6
859/905
This estimate is still subjective does not include personnel quality and UAVs.
Thanks for input. If these numbers are correct then we get:Correction. You are using Wikiapedia for Chinese air force. It is not accurate in numbers.
____________________________________________________
1. J-10A (248) Confirmed.
2. SU-30MKK (98) 2 crashed.
3. J-11A (76+80=156) 76 delievered from Russia, 80 build in China.
4. J-11B (60) Confirmed.
5. JH-7 (60) Correct, however all JH-7 are upgraded to JH-7A standard.
6. JH-7A ( 140).
I think that accurate numbers know only China's top commanders.500, you comment is appreciated. However, English sources are NEVER accurate about Chinese military. All the sources I posted are Chinese sources written in Chinese as well. I know you can not read them, but you can see the pictures and tell.
Thanks for reply. Well, F-16 has very good range, comperable to two engine planes. During the attack on reactor in Baghdad 1981 it performed the low level flight at 1100 km range with 2 2000lb bombs.I'd bump J-8's up to 0.8/0.5, and increase all the 4th gen land based 2 engined planes to at least 1.5 which is very realistic; 2 engined planes often more than double the F-16's range, have higher maneuverability and have more room for a big radar. Range is a very important parameter; the more natural range a plane has the less it has to carry in conformal fuel tanks which increase weight, take up payload and make the plane less maneuverable.
I'd put F-15C as 1.6, F-15E as 1.4/2 (due to 2 pilots and usual A2G flight configuration), Su-27 as 1.4, Rafale/Typhoon/Su-30's all as 1.5, and would not assign any 4th gen single engined plane more than +/- 1 from the F-16.
F-18 has nice range too.I'd also downrate the F-18 due to its very low range for a 2 engined plane.
What cruise missiles with range over 1000 km does it carry?I'd also increase H-6 ranking from 0/1 to 0/3. The H-6 is only going to be used for firing long range cruise missiles with ranges over 1000 km. its just a missile truck so its power depends only on its munitions.
Thanks for input. If these numbers are correct then we get:
1017/1125 = 3159 points for China.
Now its pretty close to Russia:
1032/1575 = 3639
I think that accurate numbers know only China's top commanders.
But overall:
1) Currently China has #3 air force in the world.
2) China is going to bypass Russia before 2025.
3) If your numbers are correct then it happen even before 2020.
Thanks for reply. Well, F-16 has very good range, comperable to two engine planes. During the attack on reactor in Baghdad 1981 it performed the low level flight at 1100 km range with 2 2000lb bombs.
F-18 has nice range too.
What cruise missiles with range over 1000 km does it carry?