At what speed do military aircraft fly?

A military aircraft flies at whatever speed its mission demands, and the range is enormous. Tactical propeller transports like the C-130 Hercules cruise at about 600 km/h (Mach 0.5), according to the USAF fact sheet, and the European A400M at about 780 km/h. Cargo jets and tankers, such as the C-17, the KC-135, the KC-46 or the A330 MRTT, move like airliners, between 800 and 900 km/h. The B-52 bomber flies at about 1,000 km/h and the B-1B is supersonic up to Mach 1.2. Helicopters, at the other extreme, rarely exceed 300 km/h, and surveillance drones like the MQ-9 Reaper patrol at just over 300 km/h.

Only fighters and interceptors clearly break the sound barrier: Mach 2 (about 2,400 km/h at altitude) for the F-16 and the Eurofighter Typhoon, Mach 2.5 for the F-15 and Mach 1.6 for the F-35. Even so, those figures are afterburner peaks that last minutes; in cruise, a fighter flies at 800-1,000 km/h. Training and light attack aircraft, such as the T-38 or the A-10, stay around or well below Mach 1.

The fastest manned military aircraft in history remains the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance jet, which in 1976 set the speed record for jet aircraft at 3,529.6 km/h (Mach 3.3), certified by the FAI, and which operated above 24,000 m. No aircraft in service has surpassed it: since the 1980s the trend has been to fly slower but be invisible to radar, have more range and fire missiles that do fly at Mach 4 or more. Speed, which was the measure of military progress for half a century, stopped being one.