RANKED: 5 Best Fighter Jets on Earth in 2025

Key Points and Summary – An expert analysis ranks the world’s top five fighter jets for 2025, with the American F-35 Lightning II taking the number one spot.

-While the F-22 Raptor is still the undisputed king of the dogfight at number two, the F-35’s unparalleled sensor fusion and “quarterback” capabilities make it the most dominant overall platform.

-China’s J-20 Mighty Dragon comes in third, recognized as a formidable challenger.

-Rounding out the list are two highly capable and combat-proven fourth-generation-plus jets: France’s versatile Dassault Rafale and Sweden’s cost-effective and agile JAS 39 Gripen.

The 5 Best Fighter Jets In the World in 2025

Fighter jets can fly at high supersonic speeds, avoid radar detection, and carry advanced weapons.  Modern jets use stealth technology, smart sensors, and sometimes even artificial intelligence. These features enable pilots to identify enemies quickly and strike them first.

The United States leads the world in fighter jet technology. Its F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II are the most technologically advanced fighters today. China is catching up fast with its new J-35A and the mysterious J-36, which has a unique stealth design, as well as the J-20. The fifth-best fighter isn’t a stealth fighter at all, but it makes up for it with incredible performance.  Russia also ranks high with the Su-57, known for its speed and agility.

The top 5 fighter jets in 2025, according to multiple aviation sources evaluating performance, stealth, and versatility, include the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, Dassault Rafale, Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon, and the JAS 39 Gripen.

#5 The JAS 39 Gripen, Sweden’s Gamechanger

Not a stealth fighter at #5? Are you nuts? Read on…

The Gripen’s design emphasizes cost-effectiveness, versatility, and ease of maintenance.

The JAS 39 Gripen has an advantage in being able to take off from short and rough runways, in accordance with Sweden’s defense policies and plans. The Gripen is primarily a multirole fighter designed for air defense, ground attack, and reconnaissance missions.

The Gripen is designed for ease of maintenance, prioritizing rapid turnarounds and high availability.. Its design emphasizes minimal maintenance requirements, allowing for quick refueling and rearming.

JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

JAS 39 Gripen Taking Off. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

It can also operate from various locations, including dispersed bases. The Gripen’s support system is also designed to be highly flexible and adaptable to customer-specific needs, according to Saab.

The Gripen has a top speed of Mach 2 and a maximum altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.

The Gripen boasts excellent agility and can execute advanced maneuvers, including the “Cobra” maneuver. The Gripen is renowned for its exceptional maneuverability, particularly in air-to-air combat scenarios. This is due to a combination of factors, including its lightweight design, high thrust-to-weight ratio, and unique delta-canard wing configuration.

The Gripen is equipped with advanced avionics and sensor systems, including radar and electronic warfare capabilities. With the new system’s architecture and avionics in Gripen E, integration of sensors and actuators is performed in a layered manner rather than the more traditional “silo” structure.

The Gripen also has data-sharing capabilities and can operate within a network-centric warfare environment, albeit on a smaller scale. The Gripen-E also features a more advanced battlefield communication system, enabling it to easily share radar contacts and other information with other aircraft.

In many circles, it is the best fighter aircraft not named the F-22 or the F-35. It beats out the Su-57 mainly because of its wider usage, and I’m not sold on the Felon’s “stealth” capabilities.

#4 The Dassault Rafale

The Dassault Rafale is a twin-engine fighter aircraft capable of operating as a maritime fighter from aircraft carriers and as a land-based fighter.

The versatile Rafale is capable of carrying out a wide range of combat aviation missions, including air superiority and air defense, close air support, in-depth strikes, reconnaissance, anti-ship strikes, and nuclear deterrence.

The Rafale entered service with the French Navy in 2004 and with the French Air Force in 2006. Rafale is one of the most experienced fighter aircraft in the world. It has been combat-proven since 2007. Daussault’s export success with the fighter is well-documented, as the company now has more export orders than French orders.

The fourth-generation Rafale is a multirole, (Dassault calls it an omnirole) aircraft. Dassault launched the Rafale program in the 1980s, as the French Navy and Air Force combined their requirements to develop a multirole aircraft that would replace seven different types of aircraft.

A French air force Dassault Rafale refuels from a U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender from the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron before conducting an aerial refuel during a Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve mission March 20, 2017. The KC-10 provides aerial refueling capabilities for U.S. and coalition aircraft as they support Iraqi Security Forces and partnered forces as they work to liberate territory under the control of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua A. Hoskins)

Dassault Rafale Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The Rafale can carry a range of powerful weapon systems in its 14 external hard points. These include the Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile, the Mica heat-seeking and radar-seeking air-to-air missile, the AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missile, and the AIM-120 AMRAAM radar-guided missile for air-to-air missions.

It carries the AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the SCALP-EG standoff cruise missile, the Hammer air-to-ground munition, the AM39 Exocet anti-ship missile, as well as conventional and smart bombs for air-to-surface missions.

The aircraft has an external load capacity of over 20,000 pounds. The Rafale also packs a powerful Nexter 30M791 30mm cannon with 2,500 rounds.

The Dassault Rafale is a very good fighter jet. It’s a highly versatile, multirole aircraft with advanced avionics, a strong electronic warfare suite, and impressive maneuverability.

The Rafale features a powerful radar, an infrared search and track system, and a sophisticated electronic warfare suite called SPECTRA, which enables it to detect and counter threats.

SPECTRA operates across the electromagnetic, laser, and infrared domains, utilizing intelligent data fusion from multi-spectral sensors to provide identification, location, jamming, and decoying capabilities against a wide range of threats.

The fighter jet is equipped with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) RBE2 radar that can simultaneously track up to 40 targets and engage four targets.

The Rafale’s delta wing and canard configuration, combined with fly-by-wire controls, give it exceptional agility. It can conduct deep-strike missions over 1,000 km without refueling and cruise at Mach 1.8 (1,381 mph) with afterburners engaged.

#3 The Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon

China didn’t have a stealth aircraft program before 2007. The Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon was built in no small part thanks to stolen documents that Chinese espionage hacked from the US about the F-22, F-35, as well as the Russian MiG-1.44.

The Chinese J-20 fighter was designed and built by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group. The J-20 “Mighty Dragon” is a fifth-generation fighter that has the NATO designation of FAGIN.

The J-20 is a large aircraft with a wingspan of 44 feet, a length of 67 feet, and a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 81,660 pounds.

While early models of the J-20 utilized twin Russian AL-31FM2 engines, based on the engines that powered the Russian Sukhoi Su-27, later models switched to Chinese WS-10B powerplants as part of a broader transition of China’s fighter fleet to domestically produced engines.

China J-20 Fighters. Image Credit: Weibo.

J-20 Stealth Fighter. Image Credit: PLAAF.

The J-20 has also been seen testing a new and more powerful WS-15 engine. With WS-10 engines, the J-20 has a maximum speed of Mach 2.

The jet is capable of carrying various weapons systems, including the very long-range PL-15 missile, PL-21 long-range missile, and the LS-6 precision-guided bomb.

First seen in November 2024, the J-20S is a two-seat variant under development. It is a long-range, multirole, stealthy fighter jet that can also team up with unmanned drones and aircraft. The “loyal wingman” concept that the US is also testing. Currently, China has between 270 and 300 J-20 aircraft.

While the J-20 can carry an enormous payload, the majority of it must be carried on its external pylons, which will decrease its stealth capability. Due to the size of its long-range missiles, it can only carry four missiles internally.

And stealth is already a factor that the J-20 is behind the Raptor. The J-20’s radar cross-section is about 35 meters, or about 100 times more than the F-22 Raptor, not counting the additional weapons on pylons.

The J-20 does not have a cannon, which could mean that designers didn’t intend it as a dogfighter. The Chinese may view the J-20 in a more interceptor-like role, utilizing its long-range missiles to penetrate opposing air defenses by engaging and destroying enemy fighter patrols, early warning aircraft, and refueling tankers.

Chinese computer programmers ran simulations that revealed a single J-20 equipped with eight medium-range air-to-air missiles had a less than 10 percent chance of defeating an F-22 equipped with six AIM-120C missiles, according to the simulations.

#2 The US F-22 Raptor

The US F-22 Raptor has been the standard against which all fighter aircraft have been measured for more than 20 years. Yet it still sits at the top of the mountain in terms of dogfighting ability, stealth, supercruise ability, maneuverability, and integrated avionics.

The F-22 Raptor remains the world’s best pure fighter aircraft, but its service window is closing. The Air Force plans to replace the Raptor in 2030 with the F-35 and the Pentagon’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, the F-47.

F-22 Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing and 192nd Fighter Wing, participate in a total force exercise at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Feb. 28, 2019. Both wings partnered with the 633rd Air Base Wing during the Phase I exercise to showcase their readiness and deployability of the F-22s. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech Sgt. Carlin Leslie)

“We’ve already built and flown a full-scale [sixth generation] flight demonstrator in the real world, and we broke records in doing it,” Will Roper, Director of the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, told Defense News in 2020. “We are ready to go and build the next-generation aircraft in a way that has never happened before.”

However, the US Air Force’s decision to prematurely halt F-22 Raptor production at just 186 aircraft was a “strategic blunder” that has created a dangerous “air superiority gap.”

What makes the F-22 great in a dogfight is the aircraft’s thrust vectoring capabilities.

Its two engines have specially designed nozzles at their ends that can move on a vertical plane to vector the aircraft’s 70,000 pounds of thrust in one direction even if the aircraft is heading in another, thus allowing the F-22 to do some impressive acrobatics, as well as leverage a highly high angle of attack during a within-visual-range engagement.

The speed of the Raptor is about 1,500 mph. The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program is a US Air Force initiative to develop a new type of uncrewed, jet-powered aircraft that will operate alongside and collaborate with crewed fighter jets. These are already flying and being tested.

The F-22 and the F-35 will each be capable of quarterbacking up to five drones.

#1 The F-35 Lightning II

The F-35’s stealth and advanced sensor capabilities give it a significant advantage in beyond-visual-range engagements.

The Lockheed Martin F-35 is not a pure dogfighter. However, its ability to avoid detection and targeting allows it to bring weapons to bear against threats that can’t see it. The F-35 is agile enough to hold its own against many enemy fighters, but not at the same level as the Eurofighter.

The F-35 Lightning II fighter jet is powered by a single, powerful Pratt & Whitney F135 engine. This engine is a crucial component, providing the thrust and performance needed for the F-35’s advanced capabilities. The F135 is a turbofan engine, and it is the most potent fighter jet engine currently in service. It pushes the F-35 to Mach 1.6 (1,200 mph).

The F-35 Lightning II’s calling card is being a mobile sensor platform that can assess the effectiveness of an entire fleet — a whole military front — by sharing data and coordinating information such that the situational awareness of every warfighter present is increased exponentially.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft flies during the Heritage Flight Training Course at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, Feb. 28, 2025. The F-35 is designed to provide the pilot with unsurpassed situational awareness, positive target identification and precision strike in all weather conditions. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jasmyne Bridgers-Matos)

Advanced sensor fusion automatically analyzes data from sensors embedded throughout the aircraft and merges it into relevant information for pilots. This provides F-35 pilots with an integrated, intuitive view of their surroundings, greatly enhancing survivability, effectiveness, and interoperability.

The F-35’s advanced AN/APG-81 AESA radar is the most capable in the world. Long-range active and passive air-to-air and air-to-ground modes support a full range of missions.

The F-35 Lightning II carries weapons in internal weapons bays. Air-to-air: Up to 4 AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. An upgrade to 6 missiles is planned.

Air-to-ground: Can carry GBU-31 JDAMs, GBU-32 JDAMs, GBU-12 Paveway II bombs, and GBU-54/B Laser JDAMs.

Other: GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs), and AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOWs). The F-35A weapons include an internally mounted 25mm GAU-22/A cannon with 182 rounds of ammunition.

When operating in “Beast Mode,” the F-35’s external pylons enable a significantly larger weapons load, including bombs, missiles, and fuel tanks.

The F-35 can carry up to 22,000 pounds of ordnance externally, including GBU-49 small glide munitions, AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles, and various other bombs. In “beast mode,” the F-35 can carry a mix of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, such as 2 AMRAAMs, 2 Sidewinders, and 6 2,000-pound JDAMs.

The F-35’s stealth, combined with the most advanced sensor suite of any fighter in history, redefines interoperability and allied deterrence, giving the global fleet of F-35s a considerable advantage over anyone.

Honorable Mention: Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, the Shenyang FC-31 Gyrfalcon, the F-15EX Eagle II, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the French Rafale.

About the Author: Defense Expert Steve Balestrieri 

Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.

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