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.

Egyptian Rafale fleet reaches 10,000 flight hour milestone

Last week an event was held at Gebel El Basur Air Base, roughly 50 miles northeast of Cairo, to celebrate the Arab Republic of Egypt Air Force reaching 10,000 flight hours with its Dassault Rafale multi-role fighter aircraft

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What's next for Bulgaria's fighter fleet after the MiG-29 is retired?

The Bulgarian Air Force is poised to transform its fighter fleet as the days of its ageing MiG-29s are numbered, while the newly ordered F-16 Block 70s are due to be taken on strength not before 2025

USAF reconsidering plan to base F-15EX at Kingsley Field

The USAF is actively reconsidering previously announced plans to station its new Boeing F-15EX Eagle II fighters at Kingsley Field ANGB – home of the Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing – due to the air arm’s growing focus on the Indo-Pacific theatre

Boeing outlines plan to cease Super Hornet production

Boeing has revealed that it will complete new-build production of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in late 2025, following the delivery of the final examples to the US Navy

Singapore green lights additional F-35B purchase

Having concluded its evaluation of the F-35B Lightning II, the Republic of Singapore Air Force revealed it would exercise its option to acquire another eight examples of the STOVL-configured variant of the fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighter family on February 24

Cost of UK's final Tranche 1 F-35B Lightning IIs to increase

The price of the final Tranche 1 F-35B Lightning II fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighters to be acquired by the UK is set to rise by 6%, the Ministry of Defence has revealed

Notorious ‘Blacksnakes’ to bid farewell to venerable A-10Cs

Having operated the venerable A-10C Thunderbolt II since 2010, the Indiana Air National Guard’s 122nd Fighter Wing ‘Blacksnakes’ will bid a fond farewell to the type after it recently announced it had formally been approved to convert to the F-16C/D Fighting Falcon

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US Navy and USMC F-35B/C Squadrons: A Complete Guide

The US Marine Corps and US Navy are sister services that had different degrees of urgency for introducing the Lockheed Martin F-35B/C Lightning II.  Gérard Keijsper provides an  overview of the situation

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What could the F-16 Fighting Falcon do for Ukraine?

Ukraine thinks that it needs fast-jets and one particular aircraft type is in its sights: the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Jon Lake explains the situation and evaluates why this aspiration may go largely unfulfilled and why that may not be a disaster

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USAF F-35A Squadrons: A Complete Guide

The F-35 is the first aircraft to serve in three different versions, planned from the outset in all US services. In the first of a two-part feature, Gérard Keijsper focuses on the operational units of the USAF F-35 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

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