Military aircraft

A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type.[1] Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:

  • Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipment using their own aircraft ordnance.[1] Combat aircraft are typically developed and procured only by military forces.
  • Non-combat aircraft are not designed for combat as their primary function, but may carry weapons for self-defense. These mainly operate in support roles, and may be developed by either military forces or civilian organizations.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon, P-51D Mustang, F-86 Sabre, and F-22 Raptor fly in a formation representing four generations of American combat aircraft.
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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Military aircraft, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.