Top 20 largest fleets of fighter jets in the world 2024

Fighter jets are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. They are known to be the most prominent part of any air force as these combat weapons are fast, agile, and powerful. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield permits bombers and attack aircraft to engage in tactical and strategic bombing of enemy targets. The key performance features of a fighter include not only its firepower but also its high speed and maneuverability relative to the target aircraft.

The success or failure of a combatant’s efforts to gain air superiority hinges on several factors including the skill of its pilots, the tactical soundness of its doctrine for deploying its fighters, and the numbers and performance of those fighters. Many modern fighter jets also have secondary capabilities such as ground attack and some types, such as fighter-bombers, are designed from the outset for dual roles. Other fighter designs are highly specialized while still filling the main air superiority role, and these include the interceptor, heavy fighter, and night fighter.

Here are the top 20 largest fleets of fighter jets in the world.