There are a lot of very capable military forces in the world. One might expect the two largest (in terms of forces, not budget) to share many common features, but that is far from the case. The US and Russian militaries have focused on entirely different priorities and are therefore fundamentally different in almost every aspect. In this article, we will examine and list the differences in the aircraft from both Navies, Air Forces and Armies from the world’s biggest military countries – Russia and the United States.
|
Air Force |
US |
Russia |
|
Total |
14612 |
4827 |
|
Fixed wing aircraft |
7882 |
3082 |
|
Attack |
442 |
696 |
|
Fighters/multiroles |
2932 |
1243 |
|
Bomber |
162 |
217 |
|
Transport |
955 |
648 |
|
Tankers |
557 |
19 |
|
Early warning (radar aircraft)/surveillance |
305 |
98 |
|
Trainers |
1437 |
303 |
|
Rotary wing aircraft |
6730 |
973 |
|
Attack |
488 |
460 |
|
Utility |
2752 |
42 |
|
UAVs |
1112* |
unknown |
* = It is not known to 100% how many drones the US actually operates.
Military spendings per year by the US, China and Russia in billion dollars (2013)
If we start at the top of the table we see that there is an enormous difference in number of aircraft. This is simply because the US spends so much more money than Russia on its military forces. The United States of America spend about $640 billion while Russia spends a mere $78 billion each year. There are many reasons why the US has such a big military budget. The economic strength, the conflicts they are involved in, especially with the “War on Terror”. That costs a lot of money, for instance in Iraq and Afghanistan. The second reason is that they have such a bigger GDP, the US spends 2.4% of their yearly income while Russia spends over 4%! The last reason is that they have a military complex of always being the top producer and always having the latest technology – they were first with both stealth aircraft and aircraft carriers for example.
Same area but still so different
Russia structures its aircraft forces quite differently from the US. Russia has put (almost) all of their aircraft under the term “air force” and so it is their air force that takes care of their airplanes while the US has done completely different. The US divides its aircraft among different branches — the Navy, Army, Marines, and Air Force — each operating their own fleets. In terms of comparison this makes a huge impact because the inventory of US Air Force’s aircraft compared to all of its military aircraft is very big, for instance there is a tremendous difference in the difference in attack helicopters (488 compared to 0), while Russia does not have a big difference at all between aircraft of the air force and total air fleet.
The reason the United States has nearly three times as many fighters as Russia is mailbecause of their budget differences. The fighter department of the USAF takes up a huge part of the military budget and is so capable of keeping and building new fighter jets all the time. Russia is doing its best with its small budget and manages well, mainly because they upgrade and keep old aircraft instead of buying new.
United States World Police Force
The SIkorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is the most used US utility helicopter.
Another big difference between the Air Forces are the utility helicopters. To understand the difference we need to understand what a utility helicopter is. A utility helicopter is used to transport troops and military equipment in a fast way when no runways for fixed wing aircraft are available. They are therefore used very extensively in foreign countries, just like tankers and cargo transports. Because of this Russia has a smaller need of those kind of aerial vehicles than the US, as the table below suggests:
|
Conflict: |
Country involved (of Russia and the US) |
|
War in Afghanistan |
US |
|
Somali Civil War |
US |
|
Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen |
US |
|
War in North-West Pakistan |
US |
|
Syrian Civil War |
Russia, US |
|
Iraq War |
US |
|
Ukraine crisis: |
Russia |
Note: The countries are involved to different degrees in these conflicts, this could be supporting a side with weapons and know how, for example.
Drones are the future
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV
The last part i am going to bring up in this article are UAVs. As i said previously the United States of America wants their military to be the most advanced one in all aspects. That is why they are spending such tremendous amounts on drones that are currently used as surveillance in conflicts such as the one in Afghanistan and as replacements for old aircraft such as the manned reconnaissance Lockheed Martin U-2. Russia also has drones but they are less developed and currently there is no data of how many they are actually operating. The Reason for why Russia has fewer drones is that due to their (relatively) small budget they choose to spend money on things that they know work, for instance their famous Mi Mil helicopters and Sukhoi aircraft.
Now we have gone over the main differences in Air Forces between two of the biggest military powers in the world. However to be able to see the whole picture of how strong the military are of these countries compared to each other it is important to also think of their naval fleet and ground troops. That will be covered in an article coming soon, stay tuned! One last thing to be said is that with the fast increase in India’s and China’s military spending and new stealth fighters (such as the Russian Suchoi T-50 PAK FA) and other technologies, the balance of power might be rebalanced soon – only time will tell.
How the Russians see it:
To get an even deeper understanding of the structure between the Russian Air Force and the USAF, feel free to read the USAF And Russian Air Force – A Comparison which compares the Russian and US Air Forces or go look at any of these articles about everything you need to know about Aircraft Carriers:
Interested where the US AF planes end?
- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
- Flightglobal.com
- Globalfirepower.com
- AF.mil
- Israeli-weapons.com
English
Having a lot of outdated fighters and few new ones cannot compare to a fleet of ALL new ones …
This numbers comparison is rather empty.
So what you’re saying is the US advantage is even greater??? The US has built more new f22s in the last 30 years then russia has built new gen4 su27s and far more new Fa18E/fs then new migs to say nothing of JSF and massive fleet of the most advanced drones. You though Armenia got it bad wait till US reapers black out the sky. Ruskie bots are living in a Kremlin propaganda fantasy. Ya never see the Russian air force chase nato or the IDF out of Syria but as soon as they cross into Turkey or what ever the Ruskies always get blown out of the sky in some 50 year old soviet jet!
The Russian fifth (SU57) generation fighters are far superior than any of the US fifth generation fighter aircraft. The SU57 is unstoppable
I think you mean that the SU57 is unstartable
Yes, SU57 are unstoppable. All 4 that have been built. It’s in an incredible force, especially if combined with mighty T14 Armata tanks, built in increadible numbers of a dozen. You cannot compare US reality with fantasy. If comparing fantasies, then it would be fair to introduce armies of Starship Enterprises, Death Stars and T-101 Terminators to the comparison on US side. If we’d compare fantasies with fantasies.
Wow. are you a fan boy! Not even close. Numbers, quality, experience, variety all lean to the US.
The SU-57 is garbage. They only have 4 of them as well. It is supposed to be stealth but when they went to Syria the Israelis were able to track them know radar where ever they went due to the huge ir signature and terrible stealth. It also isn’t anywhere near as stealthy as a f22 or f35. The SU-57 has a radar cross section of 0.1m-1m from the front only. The Raptor has a cross section of 0.0001 meters.
Also the SU-57 keeps cracking ots frame when it goes over 5gs in a turn. Its just another overhyped Russian piece of junk from a long line of overhyped pieces of Russian junk.
Lol the su-57 isn’t even flying due to technical difficulties also it’s profile makes it far less stealth capable to US stealth jets. Russia does not even have the economy to build a sufficient number. The SU-57 is still inferior to the F-22 built over 20 years ago and would be shot down by an F-35 long before it even knew it was there. Not only that the US has already built a prototype of their 6th gen NGAD fighter which will be operational in the next decade. The Russian Air Force is not involved in Ukraine too much right now because they don’t want anyone to see that their Air Force isn’t that impressive and when they do we can see the Ukrainians are blowing them out of the sky. Lol SU-57 more propaganda that the Russian government can’t back up.
Yeah, it’s hard to stop something that doesn’t even start.
good one XD how many exist? 16? With western parts that won’t arrive anymore?
well I am sure a good old hammer can still punch in the nails as good as any other ? the usa would not be able to use the turkey airbases if Russia blew it up and so forth plus France and Germany would never agree to allow the usa to attack Russia from their soil and any aircraft carriers would be blown out of the water , so that just leaves nuclear war ?
Yeah in a world where every thing Russia needs magically happens they would magically have a chance but reality is the massive air advantage of the US would be unstoppable just as air superiority has proved in Iraq twice and Armenia just the other month. Russia would fight to hold its skys but better more numerous US and NATO air will just shoot them out of the sky like they do in syria till they can just start wasting Russian mech just like in Armenia or iraq. Russia can barley sink a pleasure boat much less a supper carrier and your fooling your self if you think US bases are just gonna disappear, wishful thinking kid!
Well, it’s 2022 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in its third month. Where are these vaunted Russian aircraft and no Russian air superiority? UAV’s are overwhelming Russian armor and their vaunted T-72 and T-80 tanks. Their T-72’s have become famous for blowing their turrets down the battlefield. US Javelin anti-armor missiles have claimed almost 1,000 Russian tanks to date and nearly 15,000 Russian dead and thousands more wounded. This does not even factor the unified NATO and EU Alliance. Vlad’ how are you enjoying this dance?
it seems there completion to overtake USA in every respect by Russia, china and north korea.hiw will USA keep ahead of the pack hell bend to destroy it
It’s amazing what technology can do! I think the world powers should work in synergy to ensure and promote global peace.
Tell that to the zionists.
Give us a break.
I value technology and believe it should be used to make our planet a better place.
I cannot find answer to how many helicopters only fit in ship carrier compare jets only. I think that first front combats by helicopter or jets may be use occasion but in the future jets too expensive say back second combat watcher . Also I note that the helicopters does not have machine rifles oppose to machine guns , with future variety capacities micromissile attach bullets go many multiple distances then any recent handrifle snapper shots further back from combat area before it affected by bullets , tanks etc??
As a former us army veteran of 6 years service with the 25th infantry division in the South Pacific I can tell you first hand usa won’t mess around in awar with either China or Russia bullying us or our allies never have and never will ,our technology and will power in god and country will prevail there’s no doubt in anyone’s minds in thinking otherwise herein USA , USA will have air supremacy and naval supremacy , our us army I would put up against any ones to get the mission done ,
This would be far different than awar on terrorism it be fighting for the sovereignty of the USA our allies around the world in our resolve , for peace in which our determination willbe greater in our resolve and will power and military might ,
We need to quit acting so damn uncertain of ourselves and move forward for global,peace by every nation that’s being threatened by either China or Russia your very own lives land and legacies depend on it for generations to come
Not mentioned also as it is kinda relevant is that 80 % of Russian ‘troops’ are conscripts. That is a giant draw back when compared to trained volunteers.
2nd and last point – A few days ago a Ukrainian Grandmother (70 years old) took out a Russian Drone with a jar of pickled tomatoes thrown from her window. I am sure it cost her more in energy to throw the jar then the jar of tomatoes cost itself.. I doubt she was trained (Never played baseball professionally)
Wars can’t be won on propaganda alone.. No matter how many times you upgrade and recycle it.
So here is why I think it’s really no contest
Tomcat 135-4 retired
F-16 76-5 includes all Air forces
F-15 104-0.
F-22 o-0. However, they have never lost to Eagles in training.
Most important, Russians get maybe a few hours a month of training at all. Not to mention that the few operational aircraft they do have may not be their gen5 fighter
Lastly, a vast majority of the pilots are conscripts. I just don’t see it being much of a fight
SU57 is a superb fighter, but they are unable to produce it in quantity, per march 2022 they have only 4 operative and they do not dare using them in Ukraine.
Same with T-14 Armata, only a handful have been delivered since 2015, they still rely upon T-72, T-80 and T-90