Who rules the skies 🛩️?
And how much did countries spend on their military in 2022?
‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’ - Winston Churchill praising the RAF after the Battle of Britain. 80 years later, and air superiority is still of crucial importance to any nation’s military might. But does the RAF still rule the skies? And how did military spending look in 2022?
The most powerful air force in the world is the US Air Force, and the second most powerful is the US Navy
You may have heard the quotation above, but just how big of a gulf is there between the US military and the rest of the world? The WDMMA publishes annual rankings of all of the world’s air services, based on its True Value Rating (TvR). This rating takes into account not just the number of aircraft, but its modernisation, logistical support, quality of equipment, and other factors.
The USAF with a score of 242.9 vastly outscores the US Navy with a score of 142.4, and even boasts almost double the number of aircraft. Some of the most famous planes of past decades like the F-16 have even been sold to friendly countries like Israel to make space for their newer generation fighters like the F-22 and F-35 (which are both already almost 20 years old).
Looking at the chart above, it’s not just the USAF and US Navy that score highly - four of the top five are from the United States (US Army Aviation and USMC), with Russia’s Air Force coming in 3rd (although whether they’ll be able to maintain this score in next year’s rankings is arguable due to how many planes they have lost in Ukraine already).
The only other country with more than one of its air services in the top 15 is China, with its Air Force and Navy coming in 7th and 15th place respectively. Note that due to discrepancies with UAV reporting between different countries, unmanned vehicles (drones) are not included in the total aircraft count.
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Big spenders
According to SIPRI, global military spending reached over $2.21 trillion in 2022. The majority of spending was split between the US and China, who together have spent more than the rest of the world combined!
Russia and India take third and fourth place respectively, and the UK rounds off the top 5. However, China’s and Russia’s numbers are highly uncertain due to the self-reporting nature of these countries and may rely heavily on SIPRI estimates.
See you on Wednesday for more charts on credit ratings!
Created by Miguel
"Global Air Force Ratings" chart appears to be inaccurate for unspecified reasons. According to the legend, the United States Army Aviation should have over 4,000 units, but in the table, it is listed as only 2,500. This discrepancy is also observed for the Russian Air Force and Naval Air Force. Additionally, a significant portion of the TvR scores do not align with the expected values.
Fun charts, but something that is incredibly difficult to quantify. Since this does not count UAVs/Drones, it is biased a bit toward the US and away from China which specializes in drones.