Top 10 Fastest Military Aircraft in the World
The F-15 Eagle is one of the most rugged fighter jets on record and is still in use today. It can achieve speeds of Mach 2.5 and boasts impressive maneuverability.
The Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound was built to intercept American aircraft during the Cold War like the SR-71 Blackbird. It could fly at extreme speeds and also thwart cruise missiles.
1. General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark
Developed in the 1960s under Robert McNamara's TFX program, the F-111's two Pratt and Whitney TF30 afterburning turbofans gave it a range of 2,210 nautical miles at altitude. It was able to carry dozens of combinations of missiles and bombs on nine undercarriage pylons. This enormous array of ordnance made the Air Force's 76 FB-111As and Navy variants formidable enemies in the event of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union or China. Unofficially nicknamed "Aardvark" because of its long nose, the aircraft was capable of automated low-level terrain-following flight - it even flew to and from its carrier deck without landing at times.
Swept wings allowed the aircraft to fly low to avoid detection, and advanced avionics enabled night and bad weather operations. It could also take off and land on 3,000-foot runways. Its endurance and ability to bomb bunkers at low altitude with Pave Tack guided bombs made it a highly effective weapon during Desert Storm.
2. Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker
The Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, also known as the Su-30MKI and the Shenyang J-11B in NATO, is a very large and heavy jet fighter that makes up for it with tremendous maneuverability. It’s the mainstay of many Russian air force squadrons and even snatched some world records from its American counterpart, the F-15 Eagle.
The aircraft’s advanced fly-by-wire system allows it to make extreme maneuvers, while its excellent basic flight controls and engine power give it great agility. The Flanker also has a number of sophisticated systems, such as a helmet-mounted target designator and jam-proof radar.
It was designed to compete directly with large United States fourth generation fighters like the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. It typically flies air superiority missions, but can perform almost all combat operations. It complements the smaller Mikoyan MiG-29.
3. Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
The F-22 Raptor is a single-seat modern-day stealth fighter designed for air superiority (it also has ground attack capabilities). The titanium composite aircraft's unique shape reconciles the need to maximize lift with the desire to minimize radar and infrared signature. Its clipped delta wings feature trailing and leading edges to generate lift, ailerons to provide roll control, and rudders on the canted vertical stabilizers to provide pitch control.
Its sensor capability, integrated avionics, and situational awareness give the pilot a first-kill opportunity against adversaries. It carries AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles in internal bays.
The USAF has made it a point to keep this mighty fighter out of enemy hands. As such, it imposes an export ban, making the F-22 unobtainable to military forces outside the US. The plane had its baptism of fire on 23 September 2014, when it performed airstrikes against Islamic State insurgents in Syria using GPS-guided munitions.
4. Chengdu J-10
Designed and built by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the J-10 is a multirole fighter aircraft. It is capable of beyond visual range air combat, and can also carry anti-ship and ground attack weaponry. It has 11 external hardpoints for a variety of weapons, and can be equipped with navigation, targeting and inflight refueling pods.
The J-10 was reportedly originally planned to be equipped with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar developed by the 14th Institute, but due to numerous delays, it was not implemented until serial production of the aircraft began in 2013.
This jet can fly at up to 2,327km/h at high altitudes and is capable of engaging 4 targets simultaneously. It is also said to be equipped with thrust vectoring control, which allows the jet to change its direction by manipulating the direction of its engine exhaust.
5. XB-70 Valkyrie
The XB-70 Valkyrie would have been the ultimate strategic bomber. It would have sped across the sky at Mach 3, flying at such high altitudes that surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) couldn’t penetrate it.
Sadly, politics got in the way and the Valkyrie was canceled in favor of ballistic missiles stored in silos or submarines. This was due to the fact that SAMs were improving at a rapid pace, rapidly making high altitude, super-fast bombers obsolete.
The prototype aircraft was eventually turned over to NASA as a research aircraft and is now on display at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. This model of the XB-70 is molded in light gray styrene and features fine raised panel lines and heavier recessed lines around engine access panels and cockpit doors. Optional parts allow modellers to pose the outer wings in subsonic and supersonic configurations.
6. XB-70 Valkyrie II
With a service ceiling of 77,500 feet and speeds up to Mach 3, the Valkyrie II was a technological marvel for its time. Its single weapons bay between the engines ducts could hold nuclear bombs. But it was a big, long airframe that made radar detection easier and the straight-and-level flight required by a high-speed mission profile would have been vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Even when President Eisenhower approved the project in 1954, military brass knew that intercontinental ballistic missiles were the way of the future and that the bomber was obsolete.
Yet engineers kept trying to figure out how to recycle the XB-70. That all ended on June 8, 1966, when NASA test pilot Joe Walker was killed in a midair collision with an F-104 Starfighter. He ejected, but the XB-70 crashed in a flat spin and was destroyed.
7. Su-27 Flanker-F
A masterful design that made headlines when it 'downed' a US drone, the Su-27 Flanker is a Soviet fighter jet that has been in service since the 1980s. With a top speed of Mach 2.35 and powerful air-to-air missiles, it is an unmatched adversary in the skies.
The Flanker has a semidelta wing with square tips and two turbojet engines in the fuselage. It has a unique LERX (lateral exhaust region) that extends from the rear of the aircraft, which allows it to perform the "Cobra" manoeuvre.
It also has an analog fly-by-wire control system and a powerful pulse-Doppler radar with track-while-scan capabilities, and a look-down shoot-down capability. It is armed with up to 10 air-to-air missiles, including radar-guided and infrared homing models. It has set many aeronautical world records, including high-altitude flight. It also has a good kill/loss ratio, with a record of 30 victories against 3rd world countries without AWACS support.
8. F-15 Eagle
Originally developed as an air-to-air combat aircraft, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle has since been modified into an all-weather strike fighter known as the F-15E Strike Eagle. It is expected to be in service with the USAF past 2025.
The F-15 Eagle is one of the most agile military aircraft in the world, with a thrust-to-weight ratio that can reach 1.17:1. Its powerful engines can accelerate from idle to full afterburner in four seconds.
It can carry a variety of laser guided and unguided bombs, AIM-54 Phoenix, AIM-9L/M Sidewinder and AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, as well as a 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling-type cannon. The F-15 Eagle has a combat history of over 100 kills, including two of the famous MiG-25 Foxbats shot down by IAF pilots in 1981. The F-15 is also used by Israel, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
9. Eurofighter Typhoon
With the sirens sounding, engineers and pilots spring into action. They race to their jets and within minutes are eyeball-to-eyeball with a Russian fighter.
A true swing-role combat aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon represents the peak of UK, German, Italian and Spanish collaboration in avionics, aerodynamics and materials. It is capable of switching between air-to-air and air-to-ground missions and can carry a wide range of weaponry including Enhanced Paveway bombs, Storm Shadow or Brimstone munitions.
It is equipped with a state-of-the-art advanced AESA radar, CAPTOR-E, and FLIR sensors. The weapon systems are supported by a sophisticated defensive aid sub-system, PRAETORIAN, which incorporates the latest technologies to provide pilots with full situational awareness. It has also been fitted with a plethora of wingtip and fuselage mounted ESM/ECM pods. Nevertheless, published detection range performance against the Sukhoi fighter shows that it is still sensitive to technology upgrades in its adversary.
10. Su-27 Flanker
When the Soviets discovered that the US was introducing the F-15 Eagle, they started a program to develop a fighter jet of their own. The result was the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, a powerful air superiority fighter.
It can carry up to ten air-to-air missiles giving it a formidable beyond-visual range capability. It is also equipped with a large coherent pulse-Doppler radar which enables it to see cruise missiles, low flying aircraft and other targets.
Like the MiG-29 Fulcrum, it has a unique design blending elements of both swept wings and delta wings with cropped tips for missile rails. Unlike the MiG-29, however, it is much larger. It can accelerate to a top speed of Mach 2.35 and is armed with a fearsome 30 mm cannon and various air-to-air missiles. It is also a formidable dogfighter.
