New Delhi: With a total number of 2,182 active military flying platforms deployed across the Indian Air Force, the Indian Army Aviation and the Indian Navy, India has the world’s fourth-largest fleet of active military aircraft, a just-released report of the world’s air forces has revealed.
While India’s share in the global total of military aircraft stays at 4 per cent, its position has not changed from last year, says the FlightGlobal's annual world air forces latest directory.
The fleet includes combat aircraft and helicopters, tankers, transporters, trainers and special mission platforms.
In the combat aircraft, transport aircraft and combat helicopter categories, India is ranked fourth with 694, 253 and 805 platforms respectively, while it is fifth in special mission (71) platforms and sixth in trainers (353).
Of the fighter aircraft—a critical force multiplier of which India is facing a critical shortfall in—the report lists 248 Sukhoi-30s, 130 Jaguars, 128 Mig-21S, 65 Mig-29s, 45 Mirage 2000S, 19 Tejas and 23 Rafales.
In actuality, seven more Rafales have landed in recent days after the compilation of figures by the report, taking the total number of Indian combat aircraft to 700.
India doesn’t figure in the top ten in the tankers category as it operates only six IL-78 tankers which are also facing serviceability issues.
According to the report, there are 53,271 military aircraft active in the world today, with the US leading the list by far with its total of 13,246 aircraft greater than those of the next five-ranked nations combined.
The US is followed by Russia (4,173) and China (3,285) who is ahead of India and tailed by South Korea (1,595), Japan (1,449) and Pakistan (1,387).
The report points out: "Despite its concern over the growing capability of so-called great power rivals Beijing and Moscow, Washington’s airpower dominance remains apparent. Its armed forces top all six of our directory’s main aircraft usage categories, and their combined fleet strength of 13,246, or 25 per cent of the global total."
The total recorded 53,271 active aircraft is less than last year's total figure by 292 aircraft due to the near-collapse of the air force of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.
A notable fact is the worldwide dominating presence of US F-16 fighters in the combat aircraft category. There are 2,248 F-16s flying in the air forces across the world netting a 15 per cent share of the fighter aircraft pie.
The F-16 is followed by 1,063 Sukhoi-27/30 fighters, 248 of which are flown in India.
