Countries by number of multirole aircraft

At the beginning multi-role, or multitasking aircrafts were known as fighter-bomber planes. Nowadays; however, such multirole combat aircraft is capable of conducting much more tasks than just fighting the enemy planes or bombing surface targets with a high precision. We should also remember about the fact that as a result of their camouflaging possibilities, they are great for conducting reconnaissance and participating in a passive electronic combat.

From that description we can conclude that a multirole combat aircraft is a jet powered combat aircraft intended to perform different roles in combat. Multirole has also been applied to one aircraft with both major roles, a primary air-to-air combat role, and a secondary role like air-to-surface attack. The main motivation for developing multirole aircraft is cost reduction.

Obviously, the type of mission such multitasking combat aircraft will do depends on the type of equipment attached. It is important to notice that the term multirole aircraft appeared only in 1968 and it was the name of a European program Multi-Role Combat Aircraft. This program led to the creation of the so called Panavia Tornado. When it comes to being multi-tasking, we should also point our attention to quite related term, namely Swing-Role. It means adapting the plane and changing mission while being in the middle of it.

The concept of multi-tasking combat aircrafts evolved together with fighter aircrafts of fourth generation. It happened in the end of 1980s. Most of the planes that were designed during these times were typical fighting aircrafts. Later on; however, they became much more universal, and as a result of advanced avionics and the introduction of intentional instability, they were capable of conducting other tasks as well.

Nowadays, multi-role combat aircrafts are quite often necessary when it comes to conducting stealth missions as well as naval or land strikes. Of course besides that, the possibility to adjust its equipment lets them become very powerful and effective fighters as well as reconnaissance planes. Great examples of modern multi-role combat aircrafts are Canadian Hornets, Chinese J-16s, Russian Su-35s or Mig-35s, European Typhoons, or American F-35s.

The charts you can see down below offer you an in-depth statistics analysis of all multi-role combat aircrafts in the world. There, you can see how many aircrafts of this type can be found in the most powerful countries in the world. You can also compare these numbers and see how the situation looks when you compare it to your own country.