What are fighter jets?

A fighter is a military aircraft whose main job is to destroy other aircraft and, in doing so, secure the air superiority that other operations depend on. It emerged in the First World War, when reconnaissance aircraft began firing at one another: in 1915 the Fokker Eindecker mounted a synchronised machine gun that fired through the propeller, turning the pilot into a hunter. Since then the term has described small, fast and agile aircraft with one or two crew, as opposed to bombers, transports or patrol aircraft.

Several specialities coexist within the category. The air superiority fighter, such as the F-15 or the Su-27, seeks to dominate air combat at any range. The interceptor, almost extinct today, was a high-acceleration, high-ceiling aircraft meant to reach bombers, such as the MiG-25 or the British Lightning. The multirole fighter, now the majority, combines air combat with ground attack and reconnaissance: F-16, F/A-18, Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon or Gripen. Carrier-based fighters, such as the F-35C, add an arrestor hook and reinforced structure to operate from aircraft carriers.

The industry speaks of generations to summarise technological leaps. The subsonic jets of the 1950s (F-86, MiG-15) make up the first; supersonic aircraft with radar and missiles (F-4, MiG-21), the second and third; aircraft with fly-by-wire controls, multimode radars and high agility from the 1980s, the fourth; and stealth aircraft with sensor fusion, such as the F-22, F-35, Su-57 and J-20, the fifth. Several countries are already developing the sixth, in which a manned fighter will direct accompanying drones and feature adaptive-cycle engines.