Russian Aerospace Forces

The Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily were created on 1 August 2015 by merging the Russian Air Force with the Aerospace Defence Forces, putting combat aviation, ground-based air and missile defence, and military space operations under one command - a structure with no direct equivalent in NATO, where those functions are usually split across services.

Its Long-Range Aviation arm is the most striking illustration of continuity in the fleet. The Tu-95MS entered service in the 1950s and is expected to fly into the 2040s, contra-rotating turboprops and all, alongside the supersonic Tu-160 and the Tu-22M3. At the other end, the Su-57 first flew in 2010 and has been delivered in small serial batches since 2020, making it the first Russian fighter designed from the outset for reduced radar cross-section.

Moscow, Russia