Does our air power have no rival?

I think there is a distinct difference between, best, most powerful, most deployable etc etc..

We are talking about training and that basically boils down to one thing..

How good you are in training your pilots to use the resources they have to the best of their abilities... thats it.

And that is very subjective like someone said.
Because a lot of the assets that the USAF/USN operates are very unique to the USAF/USN only.

Comparative training regimes come into play when you put a JSDAF, IAF(Israel), USAF, ROKAF (pardon me if I'm omitting an F-15 operating AF here)
pilot into the same block of F-15s and then test on identical mission profiles.
Similarly, put USAF, Luftwaffe, ROCAF, PAF, IAF(Israel),JSDAF etc pilots into the same block of F-16s and run them through an F-16 'Gauntlet'. Pit them off against each other with the same a/c specs.

Only then do you get to see and compare training regimes and flight combat tactics..

Wstpt23,

I'm sure you understand what I am saying here. I wonder why you are trying to generalize everything into 'best AF' which most obviously include macroscopic parameters like gross firepower, deploying ability, EW, stealth etc.. things which clearly the USAF has the lead in.
Indeed the USAF is the 'best AF' in macroscopic sense, but I don't think thats what we're talking about here?

Originally posted by sweatmonicaIdo
I have come to the conclusion that in terms of air power alone, the U.S. is the greatest. In the Cold War, they were far inferior to the Soviet Union, but now that they're a crumbling democracy, no nation seems to be able to counter us.

But as we all know, air power has it's limitations, and it has been seen. Disregarding this fact, who do you think is the closest to being a rival to our air power? I actually have to say China. They can afford to fund their military aviation properly. Russia is haveing problems keeping their current planes.

Well if you have learned anything at all from the last few years of warfare it is that airpower does indeed have a rival, insurgency.

Insurgency isolates, for the most part, the usefullness of a conventional airforce and manages to chip away at it's support structure.

In technical terms there are countries who, if pushed, could match or exceed your current capacity but at the moment there would seem to be none.

reply to post by Daedalus3


Yes I understand what you are saying, great point and I totally agree. Still we can interpret the data to determine which service would be most efficient in the absence of such a conclusive event.