Every US Military Plane, And How Many are in Service

Special Report

August 7, 2023 12:42 pm

Last Updated: August 8, 2023 12:53 pm

The release of “Top Gun: Maverick” last year inspired new interest in aerial combat and the U.S. military’s fighter jets, new and old. The main fighter jet used in the movie is the F/A-18F Super Hornet, part of the U.S. Navy’s fleet of carrier-borne warplanes. The E and F are the latest iteration of a jet that has been around for decades, and even the Super Hornet is more than 20 years old. But it is far from the existing or oldest plane, and arguably the most iconic, in the U.S. military’s substantial fleet of jets and bombers. 

To compile a list of every plane in the U.S. military, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft on the different types of aircraft in service in the American Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy. Aircraft are ordered by total count. Helicopters were excluded from this list, as are planes that are on order, but not yet delivered. All data is from the WDMMA. 

In cases where the WDMMA didn’t provide a year of first flight, they used other online resources, including the websites of Boeing and Lockheed Martin and aviation-related websites like Aerospaceweb.org. In most cases, the year of the first flight indicates the first flight of the earliest version of the aircraft. In some cases, they use the first flight year of a modernized variant.

Altogether, the U.S. has in service more than 2,300 fighter jets with the F-prefix, or nearly 35% of the U.S. arsenal of military planes This includes nearly 500 highly advanced and stealthy F-35 Lightning IIs and F-22 Raptors. (These are the largest air forces in the world.)

The U.S. Air Force has 4,453 planes, or about 61% of the 7,250 planes flown by all branches. Some of the planes are only the domain of the USAF, like all the bombers, while some, like the F-16 Fighting Falcon, are used by other branches as well. In total, the U.S. Army has 353 planes, the Marine Corps. 497 aircraft, and the Navy flies 1,947 planes. It is important to note that some branches rely more on helicopters, which are excluded from this list.

Fighters and trainers make up the largest portion of the American warplane arsenal, totaling nearly 4,400 planes or 61%. About 300  planes are fighters involved in close air support of ground forces, like the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, known as the Warthog, and the Lockheed AC-130, the heavily armed version of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

The rest of the planes include nearly 622 aerial refuelers and nearly 939 transporters. The U.S. also has about 150 strategic bombers, led by the classic Boeing B-52, the nuclear-bomber famously featured in the 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove,” and 824 special missions aircraft.

Here is every plane in the U.S. military.

This Country Has the Most People in the Military

With the war in Ukraine well into its second year and threatening to spill over the border, many European nations are eyeing their army reserves and considering reinstating military conscription rules that were largely phased out after the end of the Cold War. (These are the countries with the largest reserve forces.)

As many developed nations ended conscription, a trend began of military downsizing. The militaries of nations, including the U.S., Britain, and France, have been growing smaller for decades. According to the Global Peace Index, 61% of the 163 countries the index tracks reduced their numbers of armed personnel from 2017 to 2019. This includes some of the largest militaries in the world – China, India, the U.S., and Russia. 

Despite downsizing, the Russian military remains the fifth largest in the world, with 900,000 active-duty personnel, or 6.3 armed personnel for every 1,000 residents. Over 200,000 Russian civilians were drafted into service after the start of the invasion into Ukraine in 2022.

To determine the countries where the most people are in the military, 24/7 Wall st. reviewed data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies Military Balance 2022 report. Countries were ranked based on the number of active armed forces per capita in 2021. Military counts were adjusted for population using 2021 data from the World Bank. Data on defense spending as a share of gross domestic product in 2019 also from the IISS.

The majority of countries on the list require compulsory military service by certain male citizens, whether defined by age or employment status. Many are in the Middle East, including Cyprus, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. A handful of Asian and European countries on the list also require mandatory service, including Singapore, Cambodia, Taiwan, South Korea, Armenia, Greece, Russia, and Lithuania.

The three countries with the most people in the military are nations that require compulsory service regardless of gender. In Eritrea, all citizens from 18 to 40 must give 18 months of national service, according to the CIA. In North Korea, a mandatory service of five years for women and seven years for men begins at age 17, and in Israel, a mandatory service of 24 months for women and 32 months for men begins at age 18. These are the countries where a large share of the military are women.

Click here to see countries with the most active military per person.

Coroner to hold inquest into officer cadet’s suicide at Royal Military College

OTTAWA – The Ontario coroner will hold an inquest into the death of an officer cadet who took his own life while attending Royal Military College last year, a move the family’s lawyer says is rare — and welcome.

Absar Chaudhry, 21, was found dead in his dorm room in Kingston, Ont., on Nov. 30. His death was ruled a suicide.

According to documents filed in court by the family’s lawyers in April, the third-year student excelled at college at first, but he was not in classes for more than two weeks leading up to his death.

Chaudhry had also applied for leave without pay — something that surprised his parents.

Their lawyer Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel, asked the coroner to look into the case earlier this year, saying the family had questions the military had not answered about what led to their son’s death.

“They hope through testimony and through evidence that may be presented, by certainly the military and themselves, they may be able to come to better understand why this fatality occurred,” he said Monday in an interview.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the Defence Department said that alongside the Canadian Armed Forces, it welcomes “any additional review that would aid in finding the causes of Officer Cadet Absar Chaudhry’s death and will comply with the inquest from the Ontario’s Coroner’s Office.”

The department also said an internal board of inquiry looking into Chaudhry’s death will begin interviewing witnesses in the coming weeks, and the family will be able to participate.

However, that process is not transparent and the military does not allow families standing to participate. They would be barred from listening to some testimony, and if they were called to testify they would not be allowed to have lawyers present.

“It serves the interests of the Canadian Armed Forces, not the public,” Drapeau said.

A coroner’s inquest will bring their questions to an open and impartial forum, Drapeau said, and provide an opportunity for other officer cadets to talk about their experiences at the college.

“They want to make sure that no other family go through the same terrible ordeal,” he said.

The board of inquiry is not mandated to explore the role the Royal Military College culture may have played in Chaudhry’s death. In court documents, his family said the military failed to act on a series of damning reports about the college in exact years.

The most recent, by former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour in May 2022, said the college culture was prime for abuse of power and called the environment toxic.

A 2015 report from Marie Deschamps, also a former justice on the Supreme Court, described a culture rife with sexual harassment and sexual assault. An auditor general’s report from 2017 said the college governance structure was ineffective and the school did not provide effective military leadership training.

Chaudhry’s parents had filed those documents in Federal Court this spring, when they asked a judge to grant them standing at the military’s board of inquiry. They have since repealed that request, pending the coroner’s inquest.

For now, Chaudhry’s family has another long wait ahead of them: it could take years for the inquest to be complete and to release a report. However, it will be the first time the Royal Military College is the subject of a public inquiry, Drapeau said, and that provides a measure of relief.

“It provides a time to, if not to heal, certainly to grieve,” he said.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, support is available 24/7 by calling Talk Suicide Canada (1-833-456-4566) or texting 45645 in the evenings. Residents of Quebec can call 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553) or visit suicide.ca for support by text and online chat.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2023.