The largest air force in the world ultimately won’t be surprising, though the sheer number of aircraft compared to other countries’ militaries is staggering.
It’s well known that the United States spends a lot of money on defense — it’s more than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, France, and Japan combined. With all that cash, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the world’s largest air force is none other than the U.S. Air Force. While the U.S. Air Force dominates the world in terms of aircraft numbers, the second-largest air force belongs to the U.S. Navy.
Naval aviation consists of thousands of aircraft, many of which are launched from the nation’s impressive fleet of aircraft carriers. These allow the U.S. to project its air power anywhere in the world, but it’s a bit different for the Air Force. The service maintains all kinds of aircraft, from direct-engagement fighters to long-range strategic jet bombers like the B-2 Spirit. If you combine the numbers to include both Naval aviation and the Air Force, it amounts to a lot, leaving every other nation in their dust.
Just looking into the Air Force’s fleet of combat, special mission, tanker, and support aircraft, it still dominates other nations. According to World Air Forces 2025, which tracks the type/number of aircraft by each country’s military branches, the U.S. Air Force has an active fleet of 4,875 aircraft. The other American military services’ assets include 4,367 for the Army, 2,484 for the Navy, and 1,317 for the Marines, so the U.S. is equipped with a whopping 13,043 helicopters and planes. Russia, the nation with the next largest fleet after the U.
