Military Fighter Aircraft

Commonly called fighter aircraft or fighter jets; these fixed wing aircraft can be interceptors, bombers or reconnaissance aircraft with an electronic warfare role. Some modern fighter jets are what is called multirole aircraft. Military fast jets typically have one or two seats and often operate in a two-fighter team, with a lead and a wingman. It is their speed and versatility that distinguish a fighter from other types of military aircraft, such as transport planes or dedicated reconnaissance platforms.

USAF F-35As arrive in France for Atlantic Trident

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighters and airmen from the USAF’s 4th FS ‘Fighting Fuujins’ have deployed to Base Aérienne 118 in Mont-de-Marsan, France, ahead of Exercise Atlantic Trident 21

US Navy continues AARGM-ER testing on Super Hornet

The US Navy has completed an Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) captive-carry test flight on a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet carrier-based multi-role fighter

F-15EX Eagle IIs debut at Exercise Northern Edge 21

Just weeks after their delivery to Eglin AFB in Florida, the USAF’s first two Boeing F-15EX Eagle IIs have taken to Alaskan skies for Exercise Northern Edge 21, which is being held from May 3-14

Eielson’s second F-35A unit receives first two aircraft

The second of two combat-coded USAF Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighter squadrons at Eielson AFB, Alaska, has received its first two aircraft

The story of one of New Zealand’s most fortunate airmen

Alan Deere almost didn’t make selection for the RAF due to his high blood pressure. So when he kept cheating death again and again during World War Two, it was only fitting that his comrades should claim he had nine lives…

First F-35A for Lakenheath enters production

Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, has started manufacturing the first F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighter for the UK-based 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk

Egypt orders 30 more Rafales

The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) has ordered a further 30 Dassault Rafale multi-role fighters to supplement the 24 aircraft previously ordered

Saab makes final offer for Finland’s HX fighter programme

Swedish defence company Saab has presented its best and final offer for Finland’s HX fighter programme, the last of the five industrial participants to do so, outlining a package of 66 aircraft across two types

Germany’s first Eurofighter receives P2Eb software upgrade

For the first time, a Luftwaffe-operated Eurofighter EF-2000 multi-role fighter has been integrated with new PE2b software – an innovative package which includes a number of capability upgrades

UK outlines final Eurofighter offering for Finland

On behalf of the Eurofighter consortium, the UK has outlined the best and final offer in its Typhoon proposal for Finland, which seeks to procure a new multi-role fighter to replace its ageing Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fleet

Fighter aircraft were not the first heavier-than-air military aircraft. During the First World War bi-planes with a pilot and a crew member would carry out. Guns were soon added to these aircraft and the fighters were born; the term dogfight became synonymous with the new form of aerial combat. These aircraft would also crudely drop bombs with a crew member simply throwing the bombs out of the aircraft. After the First World War, fighter development led to the single wing, enclosed cockpit, propeller powered aircraft such as the RAF Hawker Hurricane, Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the United States Army Airforce North American Aviation P-51 Mustang. After the war, the RAF Gloster Meteor was the RAF’s first operational jet fighter and it was rapidly joined by fast jets from France, Russia and the USA.

Today, the roles of military fast jets have hardly changed, from intercepting other fast jets fighters or bombers, to maintaining air superiority, they are bombing air defences and photographing bombed sites for battle damage assessment as well as escorting slower, more vulnerable aircraft.

Different Types of Fighter Planes

From the first aerial reconnaissance aircraft, the Wright brothers military flyer, or Model A, sold to the US military in 1909, it took 45 years until the United States Airforce’s North American F-100 Super Sabre became the world’s first operational supersonic fighter in 1954. There has been a huge amount of technological development between the Super Sabre and the world’s first operational fifth generation fighter, the United States Marine Corp’s Lockheed Martin F-35B/C Lightning II, which entered service in 2015. All fixed wing aircraft, since the advent of jet fighters in World War Two, have been a variety of designs to meet the military’s changing needs. Jet engines were in development before World War Two, but it was only near the end of that war that the first operational fast jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, took to the skies.

Fighters steadily developed to fly higher and faster, carry more payloads, both missiles and bombs, and became supersonic. The need for greater speed saw the delta wing shape for supersonic flight, air-to-air missiles were used in the Korean War for the first time, and it was only later that fighters were equipped with radar, allowing for longer range interception. The 1960s saw the development of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability with the Royal Navy’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which is still in service with the Indian military. Propeller powered fighter aircraft did not end with the flights of the Gloster Meteor and the 1950s saw experiments with VTOL propeller powered aircraft that sat on their tails in a vertical position.

Since the 1980s fast jets have become stealthy, first with the now retired Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawk which was primarily a bomber, to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, an interceptor, and the multirole Lockheed Martin F-35, which are both said to have very small radar signatures.

Find out more about other types of Military Aircraft

Want to read more about Airforce NewsMilitary Transport AircraftMilitary Aircraft ShowMilitary Aircraft Technology?

Subscribe to Key.Aero

Become a part of our aviation community and subscribe to Key.Aero now. You can get all the aviation information you'll ever need, whenever you want, with access to all the latest aviation updates, news, events and more.