U.K. doesn't have any long range bombers like the USA's B1, B2, B-52?

They don't seem to have much of an Offensive Air Superiority thinking Air Force anymore compared to what they had during the Cold War, do they?

It seems from reading about the current R.A.F. on WIKI, they retired the Tornadoes F3 and the Harriers before their operational lifetime was over.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_Kingdom_military_aircraft

Compared to the USAF it is indeed small but compared to the other major European countries it's pretty much in line.

I just looked up the German Air Force and they are even smaller.

I think only France has a larger Air Force than the UK when it comes to Europe. Italy might be about the same as the UK.

You guys never called us the borrowers for nothing in afghan!

For a nation their size those aren't terrible numbers. They're not projecting as much of a global naval force as they have in the past so the aircraft count will reflect that.

The French Air Force and the Italian Air Force have no bombers either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Air_Force#Aircraft_inventory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Italian_military_aircraft

I guess Bombers are outdated now that we have long range cruise missiles.

The USA is still one of the largest defense spending country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_States_military_aircraft

Looking at that list, we have some Mig-29 and SU-27? Where did we steal them from?

Maybe someone in the E.U. can ask Putin if they can borrow some of Russia's bombers to use on ISIS?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_currently_active_Russian_military_aircraft

YIKES!

Russia's Air Force is still bigger than the U.S. in numbers of aircraft.

I think it comes down to their assigned roles in the cold war, and force drawdowns since then. Most of Europe was seen as the first response to Russian tanks storming across Germany, so their R&D focused on short ranged tactical strike aircraft, and interceptors. The UK also got into maritime surveillance in order to stop Russian subs getting through the UK/Iceland gap.
The US wanted force projection, so invested in long range airpower.
Since the cold war, Europe has mostly been about peacekeeping operations, and tactical strike aircraft are fine for that.

Pretty much. The B1-B and B-52 are mostly cruise missile launch platforms now. Sure, they can both carpet bomb effectively but you will only use those tactics when you have complete and total air superiority.

Look at China's:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_People%27s_Liberation_Army_aircraft

WOW!

They're one of the largest land masses in the world, a superpower, and they're notorious for mass producing sub-par yet functioning vehicles. Of COURSE they have fifty billion aircraft

Numbers dont mean everything especially when it comes to modern high tech military hardware.

North Korea has a numerically large air force as well but I can guarantee you that it wouldn't stand up very well against Japan's smaller air force.

We got a pretty nice Lanc we can put into active service.Didn't do too bad for us in the last lot

Nice idea Chucky but the rage of a Lanc is a little over 2500 miles and Syria one way is just under 2500 miles so a round trip will be out of the question

But not from Cyprus...

I read an article last night that said the German air force only had something like 30 fully operational Tornadoes. More than half of their Tornadoes are out of service for one reason or another.

Well the UK has announced its adding two new squadrons of typhoons
To its inventory.

You mean a B-1?

Aren't they still in service?

the US MiG's probably came from Germany after the wall went down and the Su-27's if I remember correctly, can be bought pretty easily by almost anyone provided you have the money to pay for them. MilSurp from former Soviet countries and MilSurp direct from the Russians. Pretty sure the radars have been removed from 'em but the radars and thermal hud-sighting systems were intact on the MiG-29's

No.I meant in jest an Avro Lancaster.You might be thinking of our last airworthy Vulcan which only recently made it's last flight.

ok, i held off as long as i could, but i just have to say it

we dont need as many aircraft as everyone else, we hit things the first time round






all said in jest and good humour ol' boy what what!