This Country Has The Largest Air Force In The World (And It's Not Even Close)

It's well known that the United States spends a lot of money on defense — it's more than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, France, and Japan combined. With all that cash, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the world's largest air force is none other than the U.S. Air Force. While the U.S. Air Force dominates the world in terms of aircraft numbers, the second-largest air force belongs to the U.S. Navy.

Naval aviation consists of thousands of aircraft, many of which are launched from the nation's impressive fleet of aircraft carriers. These allow the U.S. to project its air power anywhere in the world, but it's a bit different for the Air Force. The service maintains all kinds of aircraft, from direct-engagement fighters to long-range strategic jet bombers like the B-2 Spirit. If you combine the numbers to include both Naval aviation and the Air Force, it amounts to a lot, leaving every other nation in their dust.

Just looking into the Air Force's fleet of combat, special mission, tanker, and support aircraft, it still dominates other nations. According to World Air Forces 2025, which tracks the type/number of aircraft by each country's military branches, the U.S. Air Force has an active fleet of 4,875 aircraft. The other American military services' assets include 4,367 for the Army, 2,484 for the Navy, and 1,317 for the Marines, so the U.S. is equipped with a whopping 13,043 helicopters and planes. Russia, the nation with the next largest fleet after the U.S., has 4,292 across its military services, making America's total air power three times that of Russia.

Typically, when people think of the U.S. Air Force and its planes, they likely picture its many impressive fighters. After all, these are the aircraft you see in movies like "Top Gun" because they're fast, agile, and deadly. The U.S. Air Force was the first military branch to field a 5th-generation fighter when it introduced the F-22 Raptor in 2005. The Air Force flies 187 F-22s, and while more aren't on the way as the program has ended, the existing fleet of F-22s is continuously upgraded and modernized.

The Air Force also operates the F-35A Lightning II, of which it has 246 in service. The Air Force's combat strength is hardly limited to the aforementioned fighters, as it also flies 234 A-10C Thunderbolt IIs, 32 AC-130 gunships, 351 F-15 Eagles, and an impressive number of strategic bombers. There are 18 B-2 Spirits in active use, while 100 B-21 Raiders are on order. Since they've yet to arrive, they aren't included in the Air Force's total power as of 2025.

The other strategic bombers that call the Air Force home include the B-1B Lancer, of which the Air Force has 40, and the B-52H Stratofortress, 72 of which remain in the inventory. While the U.S. Army has the largest fleet of helicopters, the Air Force also fields some combat choppers with 95 S-70/HH-60G/MH-60-G, which are variants of the Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters. The Air Force also flies 51 tiltrotor CV-22 Ospreys, which are primarily used by U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) for penetration missions into hostile territory.

While it's easy to focus on combat aircraft, the Air Force couldn't function without its support assets. These include the pictured propeller-driven C-130 Hercules transport planes and tankers like the KC-130. In total, the Air Force has 520 tankers of varying types, all of which keep bombers and fighters aloft long past the point where they'd hit bingo fuel and have to return to base. Another primary function of the Air Force is transportation, as the other services rely on their many transport aircraft.

The C-130 is the most numerous type with 310 in the inventory, followed by 220 C-17 Globemaster IIIs. These took troops to and from places in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere throughout the nation's many military operations. Other transport aircraft include the C-5M Super Galaxy, which is the largest aircraft in the Air Force, with 52 in the service's inventory. In addition to transport and tankers, the Air Force has a sizeable fleet of support assets in its special mission category.

Some of the Air Force's special mission aircraft include intelligence collection assets, electronic warfare aircraft like the four EC-130H Compass Calls in service, and the 22 RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence collection planes. There are also 40 HC-130J Combat King IIs used for personnel recovery and other missions. The Air Force has a fleet of 30 MC-12W Liberty turboprop planes used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Once it's all added up and everything is included, the Air Force's strength of 4,875 total aircraft is considerably larger than that of every other country.