Which nation other than the U.S. has the most formidable air force?
Walt Kilar
Walt Kilar, former 20 years in the Air Force, enlisted & commissioned at U.S. Air Force
Updated Fri · Upvoted by Val Strode, former B-52 at U.S. Air Force and Paul Ghiron, former B-1B Project Manager at U.S. Air Force (1986-1989)
This list is highly subjective, but here is my ranking based on national capability, technological advancement, power projection, and foreign sales:
- U.S. Air Force (5,000 aircraft, 460k personnel)
- U.S. Navy (2,600 aircraft)
- Russian Air Force (3,900 aircraft, 148k personnel)
- People’s Liberation Army Air Force (China) (3,035 aircraft, 398k personnel)
- Israeli Air Force (700 aircraft, 34k personnel/ 55k reserve)
- Royal Air Force (830 aircraft, 34k personnel)
- Royal Saudi Air Force (840 aircraft, 80k personnel)
- Indian Air Force (2,200 aircraft, 140k personnel)
- Japanese Air Self Defense Force (1,508 aircraft, 49k personnel)
- Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (350 aircraft, 51k personnel)
- Republic of Korea Air Force (1,560 aircraft, 65k personnel)
- Pakistan Air Force (1,300 aircraft, 70k personnel)
- French Air Force (1,300 aircraft, 50k personnel)
- U.S. Marine Corps (aviation only) (1,300 aircraft, ~10k personnel)
- People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force (710 aircraft, 26k personnel)
- Royal Navy (170 aircraft, 33k personnel/ 10k reserve)
The Russian Air Force is under-resourced, but they are highly technical and highly skilled. Russia also executes blended warfare better than most in such as way as to conceal many of the weaknesses in its air force.
The Royal Air Force is rather small, but it projects power well enough to overcome its size, and its just as advanced as the U.S. Air Force and Navy.
The Israeli Air Force is also small, but they only need to project power to its borders and certain neighbors. Their aircraft are as advanced or maybe even more advanced than the U.S. Air Force and Navy.
The remainder of the list is basically sorted by number of aircraft, with some shuffling based on technology or power projection.
EDIT: Budget dollars removed due to differences in the manner in which air force budgets are counted.
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