Europe's most powerful air force

[Superboy]

Russian Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

French Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

German Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Royal Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of active United Kingdom military aircraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Italian Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swedish Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spanish Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

is these Even a DEBATE?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!!?

The Lutwaffe was years ahead of America during the World Wars - as far as R&D and tech. advances go

Germany all the way

 

[TankMan]

Moldova for sure

Thread is pretty pointless, depends on what you mean by most powerful. High tech? Probably Germany or RAF. Otherwise, when it comes to all-round strength (numbers, mostly), Russia.

 

[Superboy]

High tech? Probably Germany or RAF. Otherwise, when it comes to all-round strength (numbers, mostly), Russia.

Russia has tech advantage with Su-35S.

 

[TankMan]

Russia has tech advantage with Su-35S.

Debatable, but yes, Russia's tech is not far behind Europe at all. Russia shouldn't even be included in this comparison.

 

[Superboy]

Russia shouldn't even be included in this comparison.

And why might that be?

 

[TankMan]

And why might that be?

It is too strong and practically a bloc of its own. The whole EU together is still not enough to match Russia when it comes to airforce.
Entire EU's air forces combined are reportedly around 2000 aircraft (rough figure) while Russia has more than 3000. Of course, technological considerations etc come into play, but generally, Russia is very capable.

With Russia in there, you won't be able to compare European airforces properly.

 

[500]

Albanian Air Force all the way:

Here is my rank:

Russia - 3305
Turkey - 1035
France - 1005
UK - 825
Greece - 770
Germany - 677
Italy - 545
Spain - 492
Sweden - 265

22 top airforces (based on plane quality and quantity). | Page 24

 

[Tipu7]

Russia in Europe?
Power full air forces in Europe are English,German, Swiss, French..............
Among them RAF(England) is most power full................ Its number of F35s which will decide which one is strongest air force in Europe............... by the way where is Turkey? Turkey will have strongest air force in Europe by 2020............

 

[AUz]

With current fleets,

Turkish Air Force (Russia isn't considered "Europe" and isn't even in NATO).

Turkish Air Force has 250 F-16C/Ds, latest weapons and missiles, tankers, and what not?

French and German, with their current fleets, can't really match the Turks.

But when it comes to indigenous capability and industrial capacity, Germany/France/UK would take lead.

 

[senses]

voted for UK

 

[Red Spinifex]

Albanian Air Force all the way:

Here is my rank:

Russia - 3305
Turkey - 1035
France - 1005
UK - 825
Greece - 770
Germany - 677
Italy - 545
Spain - 492
Sweden - 265

22 top airforces (based on plane quality and quantity). | Page 24

Albania definitely in Europe. And world's best and strongest would have go to Upper Volta.

 

[$@rJen]

Russia in Europe?
Power full air forces in Europe are English,German, Swiss, French..............
Among them RAF(England) is most power full................ Its number of F35s which will decide which one is strongest air force in Europe............... by the way where is Turkey? Turkey will have strongest air force in Europe by 2020............

Turkey is Europe or Middle east??

 

[Tipu7]

In between...................called bridge between Europe and Asia

With current fleets,

Turkish Air Force (Russia isn't considered "Europe" and isn't even in NATO).

Turkish Air Force has 250 F-16C/Ds, latest weapons and missiles, tankers, and what not?

French and German, with their current fleets, can't really match the Turks.

But when it comes to indigenous capability and industrial capacity, Germany/France/UK would take lead.

Turkish air force is 3rd largest operator of F16................But this is the best they have.........they do not have Eurofighters or Rafales..............but after the arrival of F35s,situation will greatly turn in Turkey favor

 

[Dalit]

Depends on the definition of Europe. Europe cannot be seen as individual states any more. Europe should always be seen as a collective unit considering the NATO alliance. One could argue that in certain areas the Europeans have a slight edge over the Russians and vice versa. Although, my opinion is that the European and Russian air forces are relatively equally strong. Needless to make comparisons between various fighter aircraft. There's no clear cut winner.