Russian Air Force – dominance of the high end

One amazing thing about the rebirth of the Russian air force is how much emphasis is placed on high end assets.

Taking a rather basic list from Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Air_Force#Aircraft_inventory ) we can see the following:

– Most numerous fighter in service is heavy Su-27/-30 series – 46% of fleet (equivalent to F-15)
– It’s supplemented by 164 heavy MiG-31 interceptors.
– Medium MiG-29 fleet is a mere 289 airframes or 35% of the fighter fleet.

It’s a similar situation in the attack fleet:

– Most numerous strike bomber is Su-24 which is being replaced by Su-34. Equivalent to F-111/F-15E.
– Only other attacker is Su-25 which is equivalent to A-10 in terms of role.

Quite a change from the 1980s when single engined light and medium aircraft made up the bulk of the force (Su-17, MiG-21, MiG-23)

In the US forces, the lighter F-16 and medium F/A-18 are the dominant airframe types with the high end F-15 and F-22 represented a far smaller percentage of overall fleet. But it should be noted that USAF/USN is much larger than current Russian fleets.