Currently, countries from around the world racing with each other to make sixth generation fighter, while country like Britain looking for hypersonic fighter aircraft, so which country currently owns the fastest fighter in the world: Russia, China, or the US?
According to reports sixth generation fighters including the British “Tempest”, the secret American fighter in the NGAD program, and the proposed next-generation Russian fighters and China; most of them will be able to fly at supersonic speeds without turning afterburn.
While the United States and Russia have set the pace and standard for the development of next-generation fighter jets , many of them are still the fighters of the future, despite their advent. here decades; but speed is ultimately still one of the key factors, to distinguish a fighter from a piston-powered propeller plane
And so the question arises, which country is at the forefront of building a fighter capable of not only stealth, high combat performance, but also the fastest speed?
The American Blackbird SR-71 spy plane is undoubtedly the fastest aircraft in the world and still holds the record for top speed for a jet engine; however the SR-71 is a reconnaissance plane, not a fighter.
When the US put the SR-71 into service, the Soviet Union began working on a fighter aircraft that could be used as an interceptor for the SR-71. However, they needed to match the speed of the SR-71 to counter it, and as a result the MiG-25 Foxbat appeared in 1964.
According to journalist David Ax, writing for National Interest, a Washington-based international affairs magazine: “In 1964, the Soviet MiG-25 Foxbat jet fighter flew for the first time. Specially designed to intercept the US Air Force SR-71 spy plane, the MiG-25 can reach speeds of Mach 2.83; almost three times the speed of sound”. According to information from Business Insider, the MiG-25 can maintain a flight speed of 2.83 Mach; and at full power of the engine, it can reach 3.2 Mach. A respectable speed, when the material it is made of is mainly steel.
The MiG-25 Foxbat was designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau of the Soviet Union, for reconnaissance and interception purposes. This is one of the fastest fighter aircraft, officially entered service in 1970. The MiG-25 fighter is one of the few fighters built primarily out of stainless steel and the last designed by the famous MiG Founder, Mikhail Gurevich. , before he retired. However, the MiG-25 was retired when the Soviet Union broke up, and its successor is the current MiG-31.
As the Soviet-American rivalry raged, both sides wanted to demonstrate military-scientific superiority, with the Pentagon recognizing the need to develop a fighter jet that could prove superior. of it compared to the MiG fighter, which is the F-15 heavy fighter.
In the 1980s, the American aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas (now a Boeing company), began working on designs for a ground attack fighter, the F-15E Strike Eagle, an air superiority version of the F-15 Eagle. The F-15E Strike Eagle is an all-weather multi-role attack fighter, the F-15E Strike Eagle first flew in 1986 and was officially commissioned into the US Air Force in 1989.
The F-15E Strike Eagle was developed for high-speed, long-range ground attack, independent of escort or electronic warfare (EW) aircraft, and can fly at a maximum speed of 3,017 km/h. The F-15E has greatly enhanced the US Air Force’s ground attack capabilities.
The F-15 heavy fighter is still highly regarded, despite the presence of the F-35 and F-22 Raptors, two of the most advanced stealth fighters in the world; Currently, the F-15 is still the main fighter of the US Air Force.
“For almost three decades, the F-15 Eagle was considered the undisputed king of the skies, until the F-22 stealth fighter debuted and replaced the F-15, taking on the responsibility of combat. the US Air Force’s most powerful air superiority fighter,” defense analyst Kyle Mizokami wrote on National Interest.
Even today, a modernized F-15 is considered a formidable competitor, and manufacturer Boeing continues to develop the latest version, the F-15EX; ensure this type of fighter can perform well for a century; Kyle Mizokami writes on the National Interest.
The US Air Force recently purchased eight F-15EX fighters from Boeing, for an amount of nearly $1.2 billion and in the near future 200. So the F-15EX still has a huge future.
Thus, the F-15Es, along with the American F-22s and F-35s, are fighters capable of flying at supersonic speeds without turning on boosters; along with the Russian MiG-25 and later the MiG-31, still the fastest, most technologically advanced fighters; they can be 4th or 5th generation fighters, although some are more than half a century old