• Best Military Fighter Jets
• Military Fighter Jets In Action

FORT WORTH, Texas — In the southwest corner of a mile-long assembly plant here, an F-16 fighter jet is slowly coming to life. That plane, being built for the Iraqi Air Force, is far more sophisticated than the first Falcon to come off this production line more than 40 years ago, but it soon could become one of the last.To the northeast by 575 miles, a similar scene is playing out inside another manufacturing facility. Here it’s the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Super Hornet, two more 1970s relics that have been redesigned and modernized heavily over the decades.Without more orders by the U.S. Military or its allies, production of these three planes, which gave America supremacy of the skies for more than four decades, will halt by 2020.Lockheed and Boeing, the firms that build these warplanes, are actively seeking customers for these jets, but they’re in far different predicaments.

Lockheed is about to, a plane that it plans to sell to the U.S. And its allies for 30 years or longer.

More than 3,000 orders are expected for the plane globally, nearly 2,500 for the U.S Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. SubscribeReceive daily email updates:Subscribe to the Defense One daily.Be the first to receive updates.For Boeing, the stakes are higher. The end of the F-15 and F/A-18 means it would no longer build high-performance fighter jets, leaving Lockheed as the only such American manufacturer. Both companies will continue to support and upgrade the thousands of F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s flying in the U.S. And abroad.Related:As it searches for more customers, Boeing has slowed Super Hornet production to just two aircraft per month in hopes additional orders will extend production into the 2020s. Congress already has purchased more F/A-18s and EA-18G Growlers, electronic attack versions of the Super Hornet, for the U.S Navy in recent years. Without more, Super Hornet and Growler production would end in 2018, Dan Gillian, the Boeing vice president who oversees both aircraft, said on Wednesday.The U.S.

Navy says it new Super Hornets, but it has only funded two in the Pentagon’s 2017 war budget. It has listed 14 planes as “unfunded priorities” and money would be needed for an additional 14 planes in 2018.Boeing has also been waiting for the Obama administration to approve a 28-aircraft sale to Kuwait.“Kuwait is the key bridge to get from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2018,” Gillian said. “We’re working hard with the U.S.

Navy to make all of those things happen.”If the sale to Kuwait goes through, more international sales could open up, the largest of which could be in Canada, wrote Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, in a recent note to investors. Gillian listed Belgium, Denmark, FInland, Spain, and India as potential Super Hornet customers. The company is also pushing the U.S.

Navy to buy as many as 100 additional Super Hornets and Growlers to meet future demand and counter threats.The Super Hornets, and their older Hornet predecessors have been heavily used throughout the U.S. Campaign against the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Iraq and Syria. The Navy is expected to fly Super Hornets and Growlers through the 2030s. That means nearly 568 jets will need upgrades allowing them to fly 9,000 hours. Without the upgrade the planes can only fly for 6,000 hours.“We are working on capacity and capability to make sure that the planes evolve to meet the threats in the ‘20s and the ‘30s,” GIllian said.The firm is also offering the Navy additional upgrades, not currently on the books, including to the cockpit and for special conformal fuel tanks that would all the jets to fly higher and further.Boeing is on the books to build F-15s for Saudi Arabia through 2019.

Qatar also wants to buy F-15s, but the Obama administration has not approved the deal, reportedly over.At the Lockheed plant in Fort Worth, there are signs the end of F-16 production is near as several assembly stations where F-16s were built sit empty.“We are avidly trying to continue the production line through 2020,” Kevin McCormick, an employee at the plant for more than 30 years, said during a tour last week. “Unfortunately we’re probably going to have a gap in the production line that’s currently in the flow versus what we get online after the next contracting action.”Most F-16 production employees will be reassigned to the F-35 program as that project ramps up, according to a Lockheed spokesman. Lockheed and General Dynamics have built 4,571 F-16s in 138 different configurations. Lockheed, which acquired in 1993, has orders for only 17 more Falcons.“It’s a testimonyto the value of the airplane. It’s a great airplane,” said Randy Howard, Lockheed’s head of F-16 business development.

“It’s designed in a way that no other aircraft has ever been designed before and really since.”When the program began, the U.S. Air Force and four allies, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway, planned to buy 998 F-16s, Howard said.

That grew to 27 allies.“You think of all the things this airplane has been able to do,” Howard said. “Israel and Egypt, it’s been a strong foundation of the balance of that relationship since the late 1970s.”F-16s today have newer avionics, bigger fuel tanks, greater range and can carry more bombs.“As time has gone on, we’ve moved from a lightweight fighter, to a multirole fighter, to where we are today with taking the latest technologies off our fifth-generation airplanes, to the extent that we can, reinserting those back into the F-16,” Howard said.The company has plans to make structural improvements to the F-16s that remain in military service even after production stops. The company is now pushing what it calls the F-16V, a new configuration that includes some of the technology developed for its successor, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.The upgrades include a new mission computer and Northrop Grumman-made radar, which is common with the same system used on the F-35. That allows the plane to track more targets in the air and on the ground.The configuration is part of the upgrade the U.S. Is ’ in lieu of selling new F-16s. Lockheed is also pitching the upgrades to.

Howard said the company is in discussions “with multiple countries for upgrades of their existing F-16s.”Lockheed is eyeing more F-16 sales in Southeast Asia, Colombia, and Bahrain, Howard said. Government recently for eight F-16s to Pakistan, but Islamabad has yet to sign a contract.The company is also talking to Eastern European countries that fly old Soviet-made fighter jets.“There’s a lot of opportunities out there,” Howard said.Marcus Weisgerber is the global business editor for Defense One, where he writes about the intersection of business and national security. He has been covering defense and national security issues for more than a decade, previously as Pentagon correspondent for Defense News and chief editor of.

A Polish Air Force with a USAFFourth-generation jet fighter is a general classification of in service from approximately 1980 to the present and represent design concepts of the 1970s. Fourth- designs are heavily influenced by lessons learned from the previous generation of combat aircraft. Long-range, originally thought to make obsolete, proved less influential than expected, precipitating a renewed emphasis on maneuverability. Meanwhile, the growing costs of military aircraft in general and the demonstrated success of aircraft such as the gave rise to the popularity of in parallel with the advances marking the so-called fourth generation.During the period in question, maneuverability was enhanced by, made possible by introduction of the (FBW) (FLCS), which in turn was possible due to advances in and system-integration techniques. The features a design and a quadruplex system.General performance has traditionally been the most important class of design characteristics, as it enables a fighter to gain a favorable position to use its weapons while rendering the enemy unable to use theirs. This can occur at long range (beyond visual range or BVR) or short range (within visual range or WVR). At short range, the ideal position is to the rear of the enemy aircraft, where it is unable to aim or fire weapons and the hot exhaust makes a good target for missiles.

At longer range, the probability of a successful missile intercept is improved by launch at high energy, kinetic (the aircraft's speed towards its target) and potential (altitude advantage). Being able to maneuver violently, and without losing energy meanwhile increases the chance of evading enemy missiles, or escape out of range of the likely return-fire.These two scenarios have competing demands—interception requires excellent linear speed, while Within Visual Range or WVR engagements require excellent turn rate, while maintaining speed, rapid acceleration, and availability of control at low speeds and high.Prior to the 1970s, a popular view in the defense community was that missiles would render WVR combat obsolete and hence maneuverability useless. Combat experience proved this untrue due to the poor quality of missiles and the recurring need to identify targets visually. Though improvements in missile technology may make that vision a reality, experience has indicated that sensors are not foolproof and that fighters will still need to be able to fight and maneuver at close ranges. So whereas the premier (e.g., the and ) were designed as interceptors with only a secondary emphasis on maneuverability, interceptors have been relegated to a secondary role in the fourth generation, with a renewed emphasis on maneuverability. The inverted above an shown here is an example of fly-by-wire control.One of the new innovations on fourth generation jet fighters is, while generation 4.5 introduced radar.The YF-16, eventually developed into the, was the world's first aircraft intentionally designed to be slightly aerodynamically unstable.

This technique, called ' (RSS), was incorporated to further enhance the aircraft's performance. Most aircraft are designed with positive static stability, which induces an aircraft to return to its original following a disturbance. However, positive static stability, the tendency to remain in its current attitude, opposes the pilot's efforts to maneuver. On the other hand, an aircraft with negative static stability will, in the absence of control input, readily deviate from level and controlled flight.An aircraft with negative static stability can therefore be made more maneuverable. At supersonic airspeed, a negatively stable aircraft can exhibit positive static stability due to aerodynamic center migration. To counter this tendency to depart from controlled flight—and avoid the need for constant minute trimming inputs by the pilot—the 4th gen aircraft has a quadruplex (four-channel) (FBW) (FLCS). The flight control computer (FLCC), which is the key component of the FLCS, accepts the pilot's input from the stick and rudder controls, and manipulates the control surfaces in such a way as to produce the desired result without inducing a loss of control.

The FLCC also takes thousands of measurements per second of the aircraft's attitude, and automatically makes corrections to counter deviations from the flight path that were not input by the pilot. Is also achieved in the same way, processing thousands of instructions per second to synchronize to minimize drag in turns.Early fourth generation American fighters like the F-15 Eagle and F-14 Tomcat retained electro-mechanical flight hydraulics, while their newer and cheaper alternatives, the and, incorporated. The newest derivative of the F-15, the F-15SA Strike Eagle for Saudi Arabia, has fly-by-wire instead of the previous Eagles' hybrid electronic/mechanical system.Thrust vectoring.

MiG-29OVT all-aspect engine viewis a technology to further enhance a fighter's turning ability, first introduced in Soviet fighters. By redirecting the jet exhaust, it is possible to directly translate the engine's power into directional changes more efficiently than via the plane's control surfaces. The was the first aircraft to publicly display thrust vectoring for pitch (called 2D TVC), making the aircraft highly maneuverable, capable of near-zero airspeed at high angles of attack without stalling, and dynamic aerobatics at low speeds like. The nozzles of the are mounted 32° outward to longitudinal engine axis (i.e.

In the horizontal plane) and can be deflected ±15° in the vertical plane. This produces a effect, greatly enhancing the turning capability of the aircraft. The MiG-35 with its RD-33OVT engines with the vectored thrust nozzles allows it to be the first twin-engine aircraft with vectoring nozzles that can move in two directions (that is, 3D TVC). Other existing thrust-vectoring aircraft, like the, have nozzles that vector in one direction. The technology has been fitted to the and later derivatives.

Explored fitting the technology to the and the, but only introduced it on the.Supercruise. Featuresis the ability of aircraft to cruise at supersonic speeds without the.Because of parasitic drag effects, fighters carrying external weapons stores encounter a vastly increased drag divergence near the speed of sound. This can prevent safe acceleration through the regime or make it too fuel-expensive to be effective on missions. Meanwhile, maintaining supersonic speed without (periodic) afterburner use saves large quantities of fuel too, increasing the range at which an aircraft can in reality still take advantage of its full performance.According to the, the can cruise at about Mach 1.2 without afterburner. The manufacturer claims that the maximum level speed possible without reheat is Mach 1.5.

Best Military Fighter Jets

An (Development Aircraft trainer version) demonstrated supercruise (1.21 M) with 2 SRAAM, 4 MRAAM and drop tank (plus 1 tonne flight-test equipment, plus 700 kg more weight for the trainer version) during the Singapore evaluation. Avionics. A USAF cockpitAvionics is a catch-all term for the electronic systems aboard an aircraft, which have been growing in complexity and importance. The main elements of an aircraft's avionics are its communication and navigation systems, sensors (radar and IR), computers and, and user interface.

Because they can be readily swapped out as new technologies become available, they are often upgraded over the lifetime of an aircraft. A number of F-15C Eagles, the type was first produced in 1978, have received upgrades in the 2007 such as AESA radar and and will receive the 2040C Eagle upgrade to keep them in service until 2040, thanks to its large size and long airframe life.Details about these systems are highly classified. Thus, many export aircraft have downgraded avionics, and buyers often replace them with domestically developed avionics, sometimes considered superior to the original. Examples are the sold to India, the and sold to Israel, and the sold to South Korea. RadarThe primary sensor for all modern fighters is.

Fielded its first modified F-15Cs equipped with radars, which have no moving parts and are capable of projecting a much tighter beam and quicker scans. Later on, it was introduced to the and the block 60 (export) F-16 also, and will be used for future American fighters. France introduced its first indigenous AESA radar, the -AESA built by Thales in February 2012 for use on the Rafale. The RBE2-AESA can also be retrofitted on the Mirage 2000. A European consortium GTDAR is developing an AESA radar for future use on the Typhoon.

Russia has an AESA radar on its MIG-35 and their newest versions. For the next-generation F-22 and F-35, the U.S. Will use (LPI) capacity. This will spread the energy of a radar pulse over several frequencies, so as not to trip the that all aircraft carry. The OLS-30 is a combined / device.In response to the increasing American emphasis on radar-evading stealth designs, Russia turned to alternate sensors, with emphasis on (IRST) sensors, first introduced on the American and fighters in the 1960s, for detection and tracking of airborne targets.

These measure IR radiation from targets. As a passive sensor, it has limited range, and contains no inherent data about position and direction of targets - these must be inferred from the images captured.

To offset this, IRST systems can incorporate a in order to provide full solutions for cannon fire or for launching missiles. Using this method, German using helmet-displayed IRST systems were able to acquire a with greater efficiency than USAF in wargame exercises. IRST sensors have now become standard on Russian aircraft. With the exception of the (officially retired as of September 2006), no 4th-generation Western fighters carry built-in IRST sensors for air-to-air detection, though the similar is often used to acquire ground targets.However '4.5 generation' fighters started introducing integrated IRST systems, such as the boasting the integrated IRST, a feature adopted very early in its design as an 'omnirole' fighter jet. The introduced the PIRATE-IRST (beginning with Tranche 1 Block 5 aircraft, while previously build aircraft are being retrofitted since spring 2007 ) and the will have built-in, PIRATE-IRST sensors, a feature adopted early in the design, meanwhile beginning in 2012 the Super Hornet will also have an IRST.The tactical implications of the computing and data bus capabilities of aircraft are hard to determine. A more sophisticated computer bus would allow more flexible uses of the existing avionics. For example, it is speculated that the F-22 is able to jam or damage enemy electronics with a focused application of its radar.

A computing feature of significant tactical importance is the datalink. All modern European and American aircraft are capable of sharing targeting data with allied fighters and AWACS planes (see ). The Russian interceptor also has some datalink capability, so it is reasonable to assume that other Russian planes can also do so. The sharing of targeting and sensor data allows pilots to put radiating, highly visible sensors further from enemy forces, while using that data to vector silent fighters toward the enemy.Stealth technology is an extension of the notion of to modern radar and detection sensors. While not rendering an aircraft 'invisible' as is popularly conceived, stealth makes an aircraft much more difficult to discern among the sky, clouds, or distant aircraft, conferring a significant tactical advantage.

While the basic principles of shaping aircraft to avoid detection were known at least since the 1960s, it was not until the availability of supercomputers that shape computations could be performed from every angle, a complex task. The use of computer-aided design, combined with, produced aircraft of drastically reduced radar cross-section that were much more difficult to detect on radar. Meanwhile, advances in digital flight control make potentially destabilizing, or control-complicating effects of shape alterations easier to compensate for. The uses jet inlets that conceal the front of the jet engine (a strong radar target) from radar. Many important radar targets, such as the wing, canard and fin leading edges, are highly swept to reflect radar energy well away from the front sector.During the 1970s, the rudimentary level of stealth shaping (as seen in the faceted design of the ) resulted in too severe a performance penalty to be used on fighters.

Faster computers enabled smoother designs such as the, and thought was given to applying the basic ideas to decrease, if not drastically reduce, the RCS of fighter aircraft. These techniques are also combined with methods of decreasing the, visual signature, and of the aircraft. While fighters designated 4.5 generation under the US-devised system incorporate some low-observable features, so-called have more clearly been designed with this as a very high priority. The inclusion of this as a criterion for the designation of 'fifth generation' serves to illustrate the degree to which US manufacturers and their clients appear to assign value to this capability.There are some reports that the 's avionics, the, includes 'stealthy' technology, and systems for the active cancellation of RADAR analogous to the acoustic noise suppression systems on the. Conventional jammers make locating an aircraft more difficult, but their operation is itself detectable, with missiles being designed more recently to endeavor to follow the jamming itself.

The French system is hypothesized to interfere with detection without revealing that jamming is in operation.Such a system ought in principle to be able to make an aircraft entirely invisible, were it to be feasible to actively mimic an undisturbed RADAR signature (canceling all reflections, and compensating for any RADAR shadow) however such a system would be incalculably difficult and is not envisaged. Meanwhile, the real effectiveness of systems that allegedly exist is unknown.Research continues into other ways of decreasing observability by radar. There are claims that Russian researchers are working on '.There are in any case ways to detect fighters other than radar. For instance, passive infra-red sensors can detect the heat of engines, and even the sound of a (which any supersonic aircraft will make) can be tracked with a network of sensors and computers.

However, using these to provide precise targeting information for a long-range missile is considerably less straightforward than radar.uses an air intake that prevents radar waves from reflecting off engine compressor fans, thus significantly reducing frontal RCS. This is similar to the layout on the stealth fighter.Combat performance The F-15 and F-16 have the first and second best known overall combat records of modern jet fighters – an amalgamation of the combat records of both jets in service in various conflicts, followed by both jets in service during the Invasion of Iraq in 1991. F-15s have a claimed combat record of 101 victories and zero losses in actual air-to-air combat.: the Israeli Air Force credited its F-15s and F-16s with 86 air-to-air kills, albeit of and, while suffering no air-to-air losses of their own.: Iran used and Iraq deployed, although there are no reports of the two aircraft types actually engaging each other. On 17 January 1991, the first night of the offence of invasion forces, an PD shot down a US Navy F/A-18C (piloted by LCdr ), which was lost 29 nautical miles (54 km) southeast of. USAF pilots shot down five MiG-29s. A pilot shot down a MiG-29A and a USAF F-16 pilot also shot down a MiG-29A.

USAF F-15 pilots shot down four MiG-29s. In February 1999, according to some reports, pilots shot down four MiG-29s. Some of these sources claim that the Ethiopian planes were flown by Russian pilots, and the Eritrean planes by Ukrainians. (It is certainly true that local pilots were trained by instructors from those nations. ).

Military Fighter Jets In Action

Between May 1986 and November 1988, F-16s shot down at least eight intruders from Afghanistan. The first three of these were one Su-22, one probable Su-22, and one An-26. The remaining five intruders were(two Su-22s, two MiG-23s, and one Su-25).Different air forces regularly practice against each other in exercises, and when they fly different aircraft some indication of the relative capabilities of the aircraft can be gained.During the ' exercise (2004), F-15 Eagles were pitted against Su-30MKIs, Mirage 2000s, MiG-29s and aging. The results have been widely publicized with the IAF winning a majority of the mock combat, although the USAF fought at a numerical disadvantage, and both sides without AWACS support thereby restricting BVR combat.The 'Cope India 2005' exercise was conducted with teams that used a combination of United States and Russian-designed aircraft.

The (CSM) reported that “both the Americans and the Indians won, and lost.” According to the same article the Indian air force designed Cope 2005 in that the rules of engagement be that the forces fight within visual range, and both forces could not take advantage of their long range sensors or weapons. In July 2007, the Indian Air Force fielded the during the Indra-Dhanush exercise with the Royal Air Force's.

This was the first time that the two jets had taken part in such an exercise. The IAF did not allow their pilots to use the radar of the MKIs during the exercise so as to protect the highly classified N011M Bars.RAF Tornado pilots were candid in their admission of the Su-30 MKI's superior manoeuvring in the air, just as they had anticipated, but the IAF pilots were also impressed by the Typhoon's agility in the air. Fourth-generation jet fighters compared AircraftPrimarybuilderNumberbuiltFirstflightServicelifeLengthWingspanmWing areasq.

^ Hoh, Roger H. 'Flying Qualities of Relaxed Static Stability Aircraft - Volume I: Flying Qualities Airworthiness Assessment and Flight Testing of Augmented Aircraft.' Federal Aviation Administration (DOT/FAA/CT-82/130-I), September 1983.

11ff. Fulghum, David A. And Douglas Barrie. Aviation Week and Space Technology, 22 April 2007. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. 2007-08-19 at the.

Air Force Magazine. 2009-08-30 at the. Issues for Congress 9 July 2009.

Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Aronstein and Piccirillo 1996, p.

21. Greenwood, Cynthia. 2008-10-11 at the CorrDefense, Spring 2007. Retrieved: 16 June 2008. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Jeep wrangler 2014 owners manual.

May 25, 2013, at the dassault-aviation.com. Retrieved: 24 April 2010. Retrieved: 3 October 2010.

Retrieved: 3 October 2010. 2009-03-27 at the.

Retrieved: 24 April 2010. AFM September 2004 'Eastern smile' pp. 41–43. defense-update.com. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Latribune.fr.

publicservice.co. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. www.eurofighter.com, Eurofighter GmbH, 15 February 2007. Retrieved: 20 June 2007. Warwick, Graham. Flightglobal.com, 13 March 2007.

Retrieved: 3 October 2010. 'Research Articles.' Venik's Aviation Data Archive. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Boeing.com. Retrieved: 3 October 2010.

foia.cia.gov. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Central Intelligence Agency, USA. ACIG.

Retrieved: 3 October 2010. 2006-09-25 at the Retrieved: 3 October 2010.

^ f-16.net. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. zap.16.com. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Archived from on 2010-02-01. Retrieved 2010-02-01. CS1 maint: Archived copy as title.

ACIG. Cox, Jody D.

'The Relationship Between Realism in Air Force Exercises and Combat Readiness.' Air Forces Issues Team, Washington DC, September 1994, pp. 1–114. newsfromrussia.com. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Aviation Week and Space Technology.

Baldauf, Scott. Retrieved: 3 October 2010. Mod.uk. targeta.cp.uk. Retrieved: 3 October 2010.

3, BMLVS - Abteilung Kommunikation - Referat. 31 March 2016 – via www.la-croix.com.

Www.tejas.gov.in. Bangalore Mirror Bureau (Jul 27, 2018).

Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 23 February 2019.

Retrieved 23 February 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-04. Business Recorder. Retrieved 2016-01-08.Bibliography. Aronstein, David C. And Albert C.

The Lightweight Fighter Program: A Successful Approach to Fighter Technology Transition. Reston, VA: AIAA, 1996. Kelly, Orr. Hornet: The Inside story of the F/A-18. Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1990.

Kopp, Carlo. Air Power Australia, 2002. Retrieved: 10 April 2006. Richardson, Doug. Stealth Warplanes: Deception, Evasion and Concealment in the Air. London: Salamander. 1989, First Edition.

Shaw, Robert. Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. Sweetman, Bill. Jane's International Defense Review. Retrieved: 10 April 2006.