{"id":19696923,"date":"2026-09-03T14:57:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/best-fighter-jet-in-the-world\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T15:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:39:53","slug":"best-fighter-jet-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/best-fighter-jet-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Fighter Jet in the World? It Is Not That Simple"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>It is the question we get asked more than any other, and it is the one question about fighter aircraft that has no honest single answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The problem is not that nobody knows. The problem is that \"best\" is four or five different questions wearing one coat. Best at killing other fighters? Best at surviving modern air defences? Best at being available on a Tuesday morning when you actually need it? Best per dollar? Best at 40,000 feet, or best at 3,000 feet in a turning fight with the fuel light on?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Those questions have different winners. Some of them have uncomfortable winners. So instead of crowning one aeroplane, we are going to run the contest properly &mdash; category by category, with the numbers, and with what the people who actually fly these things say about them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 22px;margin:24px 0;font-size:15px;line-height:1.8\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:600;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts: the short answers<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Best combat record:<\/strong> F-15 Eagle &mdash; between 90 and 106 air-to-air kills for no air-to-air losses<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Hardest to fight:<\/strong> F-22 Raptor &mdash; still unmatched in the air-superiority role<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Best situational awareness:<\/strong> F-35 Lightning II<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Best in a close-in fight:<\/strong> Eurofighter Typhoon or Rafale, depending on altitude and who you ask<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Fastest:<\/strong> MiG-25 Foxbat, with an enormous asterisk<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Best value and availability:<\/strong> Saab Gripen<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Most decisive factor in every real engagement:<\/strong> the pilot, and the training behind them<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">1. Best combat record: the F-15 Eagle<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>If \"best\" means \"has actually done it, repeatedly, against real opponents,\" the argument is over quickly. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-15-eagle\/\">McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle<\/a> has somewhere between 90 and 106 air-to-air kills and has never been shot down by another aircraft.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>You will usually see this written as \"104 to zero.\" We publish it as a range in our <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/fighter-jet-combat-statistics\/\">fighter jet combat statistics database<\/a>, and the range matters. Different air forces count differently, some claims are contested, and a handful of the Israeli tallies are disputed by the other side. What is not disputed is the zero. No F-15 has been lost in air-to-air combat in more than fifty years of service, across four air forces.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>That is a genuinely extraordinary number, and it deserves one piece of context: the Eagle mostly fought at times and places of its side&rsquo;s choosing, with AWACS support, against opponents who were often outnumbered, less well trained and flying with worse missiles. The aircraft is superb. The circumstances helped.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=700462077  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/f-15-eagle-vertical-climb-flares.jpg\" alt=\"An F-15 Eagle climbing vertically while releasing flares\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The F-15 has the best air-to-air record of any fighter ever built. It is also fifty years old, and the circumstances of that record deserve an asterisk. U.S. Air Force photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Ask an Eagle pilot and you get a more sober assessment than the internet gives you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;That it is unbeatable. It is not. There are many planes that are more than its equal in manoeuvrability\/power. The advantage an Eagle usually has is greater SA and better training\/experience.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Maj. Shari Williams, USAF (ret.)<\/strong> &mdash; F-15C pilot, roughly 2,000 hours on type, interviewed by Hush-Kit in 2020, on the biggest myth about the F-15<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>She is equally blunt about the trade-off built into the airframe: <em>&ldquo;Size. Big means more gas and more missiles. But being large means you can be easily seen and much more easily countered in a visual fight.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For the counter-example, look at the other end of our database. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-29-fulcrum\/\">MiG-29 Fulcrum<\/a> &mdash; an aircraft NATO spent the 1980s being genuinely frightened of &mdash; has no confirmed air-to-air kills and around fifteen air-to-air losses. Same era, comparable aerodynamics, catastrophically different record. Almost none of that gap is about the airframe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">2. Hardest to fight: the F-22 Raptor<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-22-raptor\/\">F-22 Raptor<\/a> has never scored an air-to-air kill. It has never needed to. Its reputation rests almost entirely on what happens to people who train against it, and those people are unusually candid about the experience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see the [expletive deleted] thing. It won&rsquo;t let me put a weapon on it, even when I can see it visually through the canopy. [Flying against the F-22] annoys the hell out of me.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Sqn Ldr Stephen Chappell, RAAF<\/strong> &mdash; Exchange F-15 pilot flying with the USAF 65th Aggressor Squadron, after the Raptor&rsquo;s Red Flag debut, quoted in Code One, 2007<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>His aggressor squadron commander, Lt. Col. Larry Bruce, put it more formally in the same piece: <em>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s humbling not only because of the F-22&rsquo;s stealth, but also because of its unmatched maneuverability and power.&rdquo;<\/em> Worth noting that Code One is Lockheed Martin&rsquo;s own magazine &mdash; though the quotes are from foreign and aggressor pilots, not salesmen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Raptor&rsquo;s weakness is not performance. It is arithmetic. Only 187 were built, production ended after five years, and it cannot be exported. The best air-superiority fighter in the world is also one of the rarest.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">3. Best situational awareness: the F-35<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>No aircraft in modern history has been argued about like the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-35-lightning-ii\/\">F-35 Lightning II<\/a>, and most of the argument is about the wrong thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In 2015 a test-pilot report leaked describing an F-35A at a distinct energy disadvantage against an F-16D in high angle-of-attack manoeuvring. It became \"the F-35 can&rsquo;t dogfight.\" Two things are true at once here. The report was real, and its core finding on raw manoeuvrability was not actually contradicted by the official rebuttal. But the aircraft was AF-2, an early flight-sciences airframe without the mission systems, weapons or helmet that make a production F-35 what it is, and the exercise was a handling-qualities evaluation rather than a representative fight.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The most useful voices are pilots who flew something else first.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;For now my conclusion is that this is an airplane that allows me to be more forward and aggressive than I could ever be in an F-16.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Maj. Morten &ldquo;Dolby&rdquo; Hanche, Royal Norwegian Air Force<\/strong> &mdash; First Norwegian F-35 pilot, 2,200 hours on the F-16, writing in 2016<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Hanche is not a cheerleader. In the same post he is candid that the F-35&rsquo;s cockpit view is worse than the F-16&rsquo;s, because the headrest blocks the over-the-shoulder check that the Viper allowed. He simply argues the trade is worth it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Lt. Col. David &ldquo;Chip&rdquo; Berke &mdash; the only US Marine to have flown both the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-22-raptor\/\">F-22<\/a> and the F-35, and a former TOPGUN instructor &mdash; frames it as a category error.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The whole concept of dogfighting is so misunderstood and taken out of context. &hellip; We need to stop judging a fighter&rsquo;s ability based on wing loading and Gs.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lt. Col. David &ldquo;Chip&rdquo; Berke, USMC<\/strong> &mdash; Former F-22 and F-35 pilot and TOPGUN instructor, 2017<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>His summary of the aircraft, from 2012, has aged well: <em>&ldquo;that&rsquo;s the F-35 in a nutshell; it is a situational awareness machine.&rdquo;<\/em> And, pointedly, that the F-22 has <em>&ldquo;a 4th generation cockpit on top of a 5th generation sensor and information system.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>One footnote the sceptics rarely mention: the F-35 already has a confirmed air-to-air kill on its record. The F-22 does not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RNI_rAatSag\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">4. Best in a knife fight: Typhoon and Rafale<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Get inside a few miles, guns and short-range missiles only, and the picture changes completely. This is the one arena where Europe&rsquo;s two 4.5-generation fighters are genuinely, demonstrably world-class.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>At Red Flag&ndash;Alaska in 2012, German <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/eurofighter-typhoon\/\">Eurofighter Typhoons<\/a> flew one-versus-one against F-22s. The Germans stripped the tanks off and went hunting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The key is to get as close as possible to the F-22 and stay there. They didn&rsquo;t expect us to turn so aggressively. &hellip; There were two mornings where we flew against them 1v1. We pulled off all the tanks to get the most alpha; the Eurofighter really is an animal with no tanks.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Maj. Marc Gruene, German Air Force<\/strong> &mdash; Typhoon pilot, Jagdgeschwader 74, on 1v1 engagements against the F-22 at Red Flag-Alaska 2012<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>His wing commander was careful to keep it in proportion, which is exactly why the quote is credible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The Raptor&rsquo;s unique capabilities are overwhelming, but as soon as you get to the merge, which is [admittedly] only a very small spectrum of air combat, the Typhoon doesn&rsquo;t necessarily have to fear the F-22 in all aspects. We gain energy better than the F-22 when we are slow, for example.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Oberst Andreas Pfeiffer, German Air Force<\/strong> &mdash; Commander, Jagdgeschwader 74, on the same exercise<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=531689382  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/raf-eurofighter-typhoon-in-flight.jpg\" alt=\"A Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon in flight\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Typhoon is the best pure energy fighter in NATO service. Its problem is that pure energy fighting is a shrinking part of air combat. Photo: Sqn Ldr John Eklund \/ RAF, OGL 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/rafale\/\">Rafale<\/a> camp does not concede the point. Peter Collins, a former RAF Harrier and Sea Harrier pilot who flew the type as a <em>Flight International<\/em> test pilot, went further than any test pilot normally does.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;It is simply the best and most complete combat aircraft that I have ever flown. &hellip; If I had to go into combat, on any mission, against anyone, I would, without question, choose the Rafale.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Peter Collins<\/strong> &mdash; Flight International test pilot, former RAF Harrier and Sea Harrier pilot, 2009<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>He later added, in a 2015 interview, the line that still starts arguments in two countries: <em>&ldquo;I think the Rafale would eat Typhoon below 10,000ft.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>French Navy Rafale pilot Pierre-Henri &ldquo;At&eacute;&rdquo; Chuet is blunter still, and we quote him mostly to show how much of this is tribal: he calls the Typhoon <em>&ldquo;a joke, very easy to shoot&rdquo;<\/em> and claims repeated high-altitude kills against them. Set against Gruene and Pfeiffer, it is a useful reminder that pilots are partisan, exercises are artificial, and everybody remembers the sorties they won.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=239043903  decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/dassault-rafale-flying-display.jpg\" alt=\"A Dassault Rafale during a flying display\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Rafale is the only Western fighter designed from the start to do everything from one airframe, including carrier operations and nuclear strike. Photo: public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Interestingly, Chuet is far more cautious about the F-22 &mdash; dismissive of it in a guns-only fight, considerably less so once it has a helmet sight and an AIM-9X.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zC89uDi8mEg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">5. Fastest: the MiG-25, with a very large asterisk<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>You will read everywhere that the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-25-foxbat\/\">MiG-25 Foxbat<\/a> is the fastest fighter ever fielded, at Mach 3.2. That is true in the way that \"this car does 200 mph\" is true if the engine is scrap afterwards.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Foxbat&rsquo;s operational limit was around Mach 2.83. The famous Mach 3.2 dashes over Israel came at the cost of engines that had to be replaced. It was an interceptor built out of steel to chase an American bomber that was cancelled, and its speed was never manoeuvre speed &mdash; at those numbers it was going roughly in a straight line.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Its successor, the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-31-foxhound\/\">MiG-31 Foxhound<\/a>, is slower on paper and vastly more useful. And there is a broader point: modern fighters are slower than 1960s interceptors on purpose. Speed costs weight, fuel, manoeuvrability and stealth, and the threat it was designed to counter no longer exists in the same form.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>If raw numbers are your thing, we go through the whole field in <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-10-fastest-aircraft-in-the-world\/\">the 10 fastest aircraft in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">6. Best value: the Gripen<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Here is the category almost nobody runs, and the one air forces actually agonise over. A fighter that is unbeatable and unavailable loses to a fighter that is merely good and airborne.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/saab-gripen\/\">Saab JAS 39 Gripen<\/a> was designed around that idea from the start: dispersed operation from public roads, rearmed and refuelled by a small conscript ground crew, back in the air fast.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Generally we say that time for turnaround between two air-to-air sorties is done in 10 minutes and that is including both refueling and rearming!&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Jonas Jakobsson<\/strong> &mdash; Saab experimental test pilot, over 1,000 hours on Gripen, former Viggen pilot, 2019<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>He works for Saab, so weigh it accordingly. But operational Swedish pilots make the same strategic argument from a different angle.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Flankers are a hybrid of figure and speed skaters. Great for acrobatics, pirouettes and pure speed, but we expect the fight will be more like ice hockey, and we have the best all-round players for that.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lt. Mikael Grev, Swedish Air Force<\/strong> &mdash; Gripen pilot, flew combat missions over Libya, 2019<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1423638240  decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/saab-jas-39-gripen-c-landing.jpg\" alt=\"A Saab JAS 39 Gripen C landing\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Gripen loses most single-metric comparisons and wins the one that decides wars: how many aircraft you can afford to own and keep flying. Photo: CC BY 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Grev is refreshingly willing to name the aircraft&rsquo;s faults too, relaying a colleague&rsquo;s verdict that <em>&ldquo;Gripen has probably the world&rsquo;s worst probe placement but compensates that with the world&rsquo;s best flight control system.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8k_3YhyeDSc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">7. The Eastern contenders<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/su-27-flanker\/\">Su-27 Flanker<\/a> family remains one of the great aerodynamic achievements in aviation, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/su-35-flanker-e\/\">Su-35<\/a> is the most capable version flying. Its combat record is thin but not empty &mdash; seven claimed kills for one loss in our database, with the asterisks that go with contested claims.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The honest verdict on the Flanker comes from an American who spent his career preparing to fight it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The big difference was training. We flew, on average, three times a week, training hard against a threat as good as we were. At the time, based on intel, we knew Russian pilots were flying and training far less.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Paul &ldquo;Skid&rdquo; Woodford<\/strong> &mdash; Former USAF F-15C pilot, 2019<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>And on the MiG-29, the man best placed to judge it is Lt. Col. Fred &ldquo;Spanky&rdquo; Clifton, the first USAF exchange pilot to fly the Fulcrum with the Luftwaffe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Overall, the MiG-29 was\/is not the 10 foot tall monster that was postulated during the Cold War. It&rsquo;s a good airplane, just not much of a fighter when compared to the West&rsquo;s 4th-generation fighters.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lt. Col. Fred &ldquo;Spanky&rdquo; Clifton, USAF (ret.)<\/strong> &mdash; First USAF MiG-29 exchange pilot with the German Air Force at Laage, 2015<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Though within ten miles, with an <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-29-fulcrum\/\">R-73 and a helmet sight<\/a>, the Fulcrum genuinely was frightening &mdash; the Luftwaffe&rsquo;s own squadron commander reckoned it close to unbeatable in that envelope. Two things can be true.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>China&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/j-20-mighty-dragon\/\">J-20<\/a> and Russia&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/su-57-felon\/\">Su-57<\/a> are the great unknowns. Neither has an air-to-air record. Any confident ranking of them is guesswork wearing a lab coat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">8. The factor that beats all of the above<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Every pilot we quoted for this article, unprompted, said some version of the same thing. The machine matters less than the person in it and the system behind them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;I have seen Eagles gunned by a Harrier, a T-38 and an A-4. The plane is just a tool, the pilots skill with the tool is what matters most.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Maj. Shari Williams, USAF (ret.)<\/strong> &mdash; F-15C pilot, 2020<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>That is the single most useful sentence in this whole article, and it comes from someone with two thousand hours in the aircraft with the best record in history.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">So what is the best fighter jet in the world?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Our answer, category by category:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Best overall combat aircraft in service today:<\/strong> the F-35, on the unglamorous grounds that it sees first, shoots first, and shares what it sees with everyone else. It is not the best turner, the fastest, or the cheapest. It does not need to be.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Best pure air-superiority fighter:<\/strong> the F-22, and it is not close &mdash; but there are only 187 of them and you cannot buy one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Best record:<\/strong> the F-15, unbeaten in fifty years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Best aircraft to actually own:<\/strong> the Gripen, if you are a country with a real budget and a real border.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Best in a turning fight:<\/strong> Typhoon high, Rafale low, and anyone who tells you the margin is large is selling something.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>If you want to compare the hard numbers yourself &mdash; kills, losses, ratios and which claims are contested &mdash; they are all in our <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/fighter-jet-combat-statistics\/\">fighter jet combat statistics database<\/a>, and every aircraft above has a full entry in the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/\">MiGFlug Aircraft Encyclopedia<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And there is one more answer, which is not a dodge. Every aircraft in this article is one you can read about and none you can fly. The best fighter jet, for almost everyone reading this, is the one that will actually take you up: a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/l-39-albatros\/\">L-39 Albatros<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/hawker-hunter\/\">Hawker Hunter<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-29-fulcrum\/\">MiG-29<\/a> to the edge of space. The specification sheet stops mattering somewhere around the first roll.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What is the best fighter jet in the world?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">There is no single answer, because \"best\" depends on the mission. By overall combat capability in service today the F-35 Lightning II leads, because it detects and identifies threats before they see it and shares that picture with everyone else. For pure air superiority the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-22-raptor\/\">F-22 Raptor<\/a> is still unmatched. For proven combat record the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-15-eagle\/\">F-15 Eagle<\/a> wins outright. For value and availability the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/saab-gripen\/\">Saab Gripen<\/a> wins.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which fighter jet has the best combat record?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The F-15 Eagle. It has between 90 and 106 confirmed air-to-air kills and has never been shot down by another aircraft in more than fifty years of service across four air forces. The figure is usually quoted as 104 to zero, but different air forces count differently and some claims are contested, which is why we publish it as a range.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Can the F-35 dogfight?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. The widely repeated claim that it cannot comes from a 2015 test report on AF-2, an early flight-sciences aircraft that lacked the mission systems, weapons and helmet-mounted sight of a production F-35. The report did find a genuine energy-manoeuvrability disadvantage against an F-16, and that finding was never really refuted. But pilots who moved from the F-16 to the F-35, such as Norway&rsquo;s Maj. Morten Hanche, report being able to fly more aggressively in it than in the aircraft they came from.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is the F-22 better than the F-35?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">In air-to-air combat, yes. The F-22 is faster, higher-flying and more manoeuvrable, and remains the best air-superiority fighter ever built. The F-35 is the better overall combat aircraft because it has far more advanced sensors and data fusion, can strike and gather intelligence as well as fight, and can actually be bought. Only 187 F-22s were built and they cannot be exported.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Has the F-22 Raptor ever shot down an aircraft?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The F-22 has no air-to-air kills against manned aircraft. It has been used for strike missions and has destroyed balloons and a drone. Curiously, the F-35 already has a confirmed air-to-air kill on its record while the F-22 does not.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is the fastest fighter jet in the world?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-25-foxbat\/\">MiG-25 Foxbat<\/a>, but with a large caveat. Its quoted Mach 3.2 was achievable only at the cost of destroying its engines; the operational limit was around Mach 2.83. Modern fighters are deliberately slower, because speed costs weight, fuel, manoeuvrability and stealth.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Typhoon or Rafale: which is better?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">They are close enough that the answer usually reflects the nationality of the person answering. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/eurofighter-typhoon\/\">Eurofighter Typhoon<\/a> is the stronger pure energy fighter, particularly at altitude, and German Typhoons turned inside F-22s at Red Flag-Alaska in 2012. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/rafale\/\">Rafale<\/a> is the more complete multirole aircraft, and carrier-capable. Test pilot Peter Collins, who flew both, reckoned the Rafale would win below 10,000 feet.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why is the Gripen considered such good value?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Because it was designed around availability rather than peak performance. It can operate from public roads, be rearmed and refuelled by a small conscript ground crew, and be back in the air in around ten minutes between air-to-air sorties. A cheaper fighter that is airborne beats a superior fighter that is in the hangar.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How good is the MiG-29 really?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Better than its record and worse than its reputation. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-29-fulcrum\/\">MiG-29<\/a> has no confirmed air-to-air kills and around fifteen air-to-air losses. Within about ten miles, with an R-73 missile and a helmet sight, it was genuinely dangerous, and the Luftwaffe squadron that inherited East Germany&rsquo;s Fulcrums rated it close to unbeatable in that envelope. The gap between the aircraft and its record is mostly about training, not aerodynamics.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Does the aircraft or the pilot matter more?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The pilot, and the training system behind them. Every pilot quoted in this article made that point unprompted. Maj. Shari Williams, with around 2,000 hours in the F-15C, put it as: the plane is just a tool, the pilot&rsquo;s skill with the tool is what matters most.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the best fighter jet in the world?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"There is no single answer, because \\\"best\\\" depends on the mission. By overall combat capability in service today the F-35 Lightning II leads, because it detects and identifies threats before they see it and shares that picture with everyone else. For pure air superiority the F-22 Raptor is still unmatched. For proven combat record the F-15 Eagle wins outright. For value and availability the Saab Gripen wins.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Which fighter jet has the best combat record?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The F-15 Eagle. It has between 90 and 106 confirmed air-to-air kills and has never been shot down by another aircraft in more than fifty years of service across four air forces. The figure is usually quoted as 104 to zero, but different air forces count differently and some claims are contested, which is why we publish it as a range.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Can the F-35 dogfight?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. The widely repeated claim that it cannot comes from a 2015 test report on AF-2, an early flight-sciences aircraft that lacked the mission systems, weapons and helmet-mounted sight of a production F-35. The report did find a genuine energy-manoeuvrability disadvantage against an F-16, and that finding was never really refuted. 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Curiously, the F-35 already has a confirmed air-to-air kill on its record while the F-22 does not.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the fastest fighter jet in the world?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The MiG-25 Foxbat, but with a large caveat. Its quoted Mach 3.2 was achievable only at the cost of destroying its engines; the operational limit was around Mach 2.83. Modern fighters are deliberately slower, because speed costs weight, fuel, manoeuvrability and stealth.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Typhoon or Rafale: which is better?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"They are close enough that the answer usually reflects the nationality of the person answering. The Eurofighter Typhoon is the stronger pure energy fighter, particularly at altitude, and German Typhoons turned inside F-22s at Red Flag-Alaska in 2012. The Rafale is the more complete multirole aircraft, and carrier-capable. 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Within about ten miles, with an R-73 missile and a helmet sight, it was genuinely dangerous, and the Luftwaffe squadron that inherited East Germany\u2019s Fulcrums rated it close to unbeatable in that envelope. The gap between the aircraft and its record is mostly about training, not aerodynamics.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Does the aircraft or the pilot matter more?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The pilot, and the training system behind them. Every pilot quoted in this article made that point unprompted. Maj. Shari Williams, with around 2,000 hours in the F-15C, put it as: the plane is just a tool, the pilot\u2019s skill with the tool is what matters most.\"}}]}<\/script><p><em>Sources: MiGFlug fighter jet combat statistics database; Code One, 2007; Air Force Print News, 2005; Combat Aircraft, 2012; Wired, 2012; War Is Boring and the F-35 Joint Program Office, 2015; Norwegian Ministry of Defence, 2016; Second Line of Defense, 2012; Flight International, 2009; Hush-Kit interviews, 2019-2020; Foxtrot Alpha, 2015.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/fighter-jet-combat-statistics\/\">Fighter Jet Combat Statistics: Every Aircraft in Service<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-10-fastest-aircraft-in-the-world\/\">The 10 Fastest Aircraft in the World<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/su-30-vs-mig-29-flanker-fulcrum-soviet-hi-lo\/\">Su-30 vs MiG-29: Two Halves of One Soviet Idea<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>F-22, F-35, F-15, Typhoon, Rafale or Gripen? We run the contest category by category, with the combat numbers and what the pilots who fly them actually say.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":19695596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,664],"tags":[675],"class_list":["post-19696923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-military-aviation","tag-priority-1"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Best Fighter Jet in the World? | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"F-22, F-35, F-15, Typhoon, Rafale or Gripen? 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