NATO's tactical combat plane inventories in 1989.

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Member for

17 years 11 months

Posts: 1,010

I've been trying to get a grasp on total numbers of non-strategic bomber fixed wing combat aircraft in service at the end of the Cold war. More precisely, I've chosen the end of 1989.

My list here is pretty rough probably, but it's a start. I'm guessing I've overstated the numbers here but I'm hoping you, good people, will help me with that and point me in the right direction.

Since credible sources for actual inventories of that time don't really exist, only way I've found to be remotely precise is using production lists, delivery lists, retirement of older planes, etc. IMPORTANT: Of course, that means that NO attrition is taken into account here. That will come later, when we all agree on the changes to this production and delivery list.

USA
A3 - 50 ?
A4 - 200 ?
A6 - 650
A7 - 660
A10 -700
F4 - 2700
F5 - 100
F14 - 650
F15 - 900
F16 - 2000 to 2500 ??
F111 - 400
F117 - 55

total for USA: around 9300
(i've chosen not to include S3 as it was more or less exclusively ASW platform back in the Cold war)

UK
20-40 buccaneers?
220ish tornado gr
80ish torado adv
140ish jaguar
20ish canberra?
55ish sea harrier
110ish harrier gr
60ish f4

germany
320ish tornado ids
265 f4
175 alpha jet

belgium
50ish ??? mirage v
33 alpha jet
135 f16

netherlands
40ish f5 ?
190ish f16

denmark
65ish f16

norway
50-100 f5
72 f16

france
200 jaguar
140 mirage f1
170 mirage 2000
80 super etendard
10-20 etendard iv
42 f8 crusader
50ish mirage iii/v

italy
200 f104
50 g91
100 tornado ids
24 amx
20ish harrier

spain
72 f18
85 mirage f1
30 mirage iii
19 f5
5 f4
20ish harrier

portugal
50 a7
50 g91

turkey
150ish f5
120ish f4
35 f16

greece
20 f16
50ish f5
50ish f104
40 mirage f1
65 a7
62 f4
10ish mirage 2000

Non US totals:
30ish buccaneers
650 tornado ids
90ish tornado adv
340 jaguar
20ish canberra
75ish sea harrier
130ish harrier gr
510 f4
210 alpha jet
70 mirage v
515 f16
320ish f5
265 mirage f1
180ish mirage 2000
80 super etendard
20ish etendard iv
60ish mirage iii
42 crusader
24 amx
100 g91
250 f104
70ish f18
115 a7

non US total overall: 4.140

Original post

Member for

19 years

Posts: 1,190

Nice list. You left out France's Mirage IVs tho. Also the A-3s were all either tankers or EW/elint aircraft. I would have put the S-3s in instead of them. S-3 had an anti surface ship role with Harpoon.

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13 years 4 months

Posts: 262

Way to forget the F/A-18.........by 1989, largely in use by both USN, USMC, and I believe a couple NATO operators. Still, I will give it to you that at that point, it was pretty new :)

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18 years 10 months

Posts: 3,614

Um... in 1989 the only A-3s in US use were one Naval Reserve KA-3B tanker squadron (VAK-308) which retired the type in 1989, and two Navy ERA-3B electronic aggressor squadrons (VAQ-33 & VAQ-34) which retired their aircraft in February & September 1991. These two were used for training of other squadrons, not in an offensive combat role.

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15 years 2 months

Posts: 316

No numbers on Canada?

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17 years 11 months

Posts: 1,010

Not only did i forget to transcribe the US numbers on f18, i totally forgot to include a whole nation - Canada. My initial, non-adjusted for attrition figure for US hornets is 500 airframes. Canada's numbers will be included in this list below, which is an easy-review version of the inventories given in the documents presented by FBW in this thread.

US
f111 - 281
f15 - 794
f16 - 1476
f117 - 52
f4 - 1168
a7 - 575
a10 - 575
harrier - 146
a4 - 275
a6 - 491
f14 - 607
f18 - 620
f5 - 34

total US: 7094

UK
176 tornado gr1
114 jaguar
101 harrier gr
42 sea harrier
125 f4
122 tornado f3
65 buccaneer

total UK: 745

germany
312 tornado ids
224 f4
168 alphajet

total germany: 704

belgium
136 f16
60-70ish mirage v
32 alpha jet

total belgium: 233

canada
137 f18
20ish f5 ??

total canada: 157

denmark
60 f16
40ish draken

total denmark: 100

france
100ish mirage2000 ??? (could be up to 170)
140ish mirage iii,
36 mirage v
190-240 mirage f1 (probably lower figure if m2000 figure is higher)
166 jaguar
65 super etendard
9 etendard iv
27 f8

total france: 793

greece
40 f4
55 a7
28-100 f5
40 f16
33 mirage f1
36 mirage 2000
36 f104

total greece: 300

italy
80 g91 attack
70 g91 training (combat capable? should they be included?)
140-216 f104
100 tornado ids

total italy: 355-425

netherlands
190ish f16
60ish f5

total netherlands: 250

norway
68 f16
20-40 f5

total norway: 98

portugal
55ish g91
46 a7

total portugal: 101

spain
18 mirage iii
5 mirage v
64 f18
40ish f4
60ish mirage f1
25-45 f5
21 harrier

total spain: 243

turkey
105-126 f4
41 f16
106-150 f5
200-220 f104

total turkey: 394

Total NATO: around 11.590

Now, let's keep in mind that the list above is made up from sources like Jane's and IISS's publications of the time. Sometimes different sources cite wildly different figures, which i've shown in individual country's inventories, but for the totals i've just used the average figure.

I would really appreciate it if someone with specific knowledge of situation of a specific country can contribute to this thread. For example, just how many mirage 2000 did france have in 1989? How many f5 did turkey have? How many f104 did italy operate? And so on.

When it comes to specific types not included, it's just a matter of personal preference. List could've included strategic planes or maritime patrol planes, but for simplicity's sake, i've chosen not to include it. After all of your comments i've decided not to include either A3, S3 or mirage IV. First one because it had no real combat capability in 1989, S3 because it was exclusively a maritime strike/asw plane and mirage iv because in french's context it was a strategic, nuclear bomber only when it came to combat capability in 1989.

All these figures are to be taken not as precise figures but as rough guidelines. But they do seem to be more precise and realistic than my own figures i've started this thread with so for now i'll stick with these new figures.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 657

Spain in 1989 was more like:

72 EF-18A/B

about 70 Mirage F-1CE/BE/EE

about 25 Mirage IIIEE/DE

about 50 SF-5 A/B

4 RF-4C, all the F-4C was retired totally in 1989

about 20 AV-8S/B in the navy

Member for

19 years 1 month

Posts: 545

Did you try the military balance for 1989-1990? it gives the specific aircraft types and the number in the inventory by country
I noticed that you did not mention the f-104 with the Luftwaffe and the tornado ids with german navy

Member for

17 years 11 months

Posts: 1,010

the above list (not the one from opening post but the other one) does include figures from IISS' military balance. (among other sources).
Naval aircraft are included in all countries' inventories, where applicable, including naval tornado IDS for germany.
i found two sources, one stating f104 was withdrawn from combat operations in germany in 1987, and another one that the remainder 2-3 dozen planes were withdrawn from special (trianing?) regiments in 1989. All that was left in 1990 was a few airframe for testing purposes.

as for f18 in spain, i found a source stating first airframes were handed over in july 1986. by the early 1987 twelve aiframes have been handed over and last aiframes were handed over in july 1990. that would suggest a pace of deliveries where ten to twelve f18 couldn't have been operational in december 1989. so 60ish instead of total of 72.

i will look into f4 in spain's air force, that does seem likely that most were retired. in fact, that's what i fear, that in most countries some of the older types' numbers are somewhat overstated and were in fact retired, but sources like mil balance and jane's take a year or two to catch on to the retirement.

edit: upon further research, i'll definitely remove most of f4 from spain's inventory. but i don't know if just 4 recce variants were flying, when as many as 8 recce variants were delivered 1989. IISS claims 9 recce variants in 1989.

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15 years 2 months

Posts: 316

The mentioned Alpha Jets for Belgium, are trainers only...

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19 years

Posts: 1,190

Were the A-7 totals for the US for both Navy and Air Force?

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12 years 3 months

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Flight international gives the totals as:
337 A-7 for the air force (270 active)
220+ for the navy
These numbers include aircraft holdings i.e. davis-monthan storage. Numbers in active units were far less by 1989

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13 years 5 months

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There were quite a few Air National Guard units equiped with the A-7D in 89.

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12 years 3 months

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There were quite a few Air National Guard units equiped with the A-7D in 89.

no doubt, A-7 squadrons were primarily guard units by 1989. FI, and Janes were usually a year or two behind actual strength of CFE reporting (1990-91). ANG lists 14 squadrons of A-7, though those numbers seem high as last listing in air international is of 337 as of 1987.

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17 years 11 months

Posts: 1,010

Alpha Jets were indeed used almost exclusively as trainers in Belgium, thanks for the heads up. I will remove them from the list. Also, the list does include aircraft in storage, that is done on purpose. (though, shouldn't f-4 numbers in storage for USAF be quite higher?) Perhaps i didn't mention this so far, but the list also includes every variant of a type, even if it was not used for combat ops. Like EW and recce variants. While not realistic, it makes the whole process much easier.

new totals for Europe and whole of NATO, per type:

Europe:
588 - tornado ids
122 - tornado adv
280 -jaguar
42- sea harrier
122 - harrier II/gr
512 - F4
65 - buccaneer
168 - alpha jet
535 - F16
106 - mirage V
158 - mirage III
190ish - mirage 2000
280ish - mirage F1
200ish - F18
320ish - F5
40 - Draken
65 - Super etendard
9 - Etendard IV
27 - F8
101 - A7
430ish - F104
135 - G91

Total Europe 4495

US
f111 - 281
f15 - 794
f16 - 1476
f117 - 52
f4 - 1168
a7 - 575
a10 - 575
harrier II - 146
a4 - 275
a6 - 491
f14 - 607
f18 - 620
f5 - 34

total US: 7094

total NATO types combined:
f111 - 281
f15 - 794
f16 - 2011
f117 - 52
f4 - 1680
a7 - 676
a10 - 575
harrier II/gr - 268
a4 - 275
a6 - 491
f14 - 607
f18 - 820
f5 - 354
tornado ids - 588
tornado adv - 122
jaguar - 280
sea harrier - 42
buccaneer - 65
alpha jet - 168
mirage V - 106
mirage III - 158
mirage 2000 - 190ish
mirage F1 - 280ish
Draken - 40
Super etendard - 65
Etendard IV - 9
F8 - 27
F104 - 430ish
G91 - 135

Total NATO: around 11.590

List is quite rough, of course, and it includes stored aircraft in reserve. But one could still use it as a basis for VERY rough qualitative analysis - two more lists:
Important - "modern/old design" here does not refer to specific years but overall, *subjective* feeling of how advanced an aircraft was for its time and what capabilities it brought to the table.

fighters/interceptors
**modern design
f15 - 794
f14 - 607
tornado adv - 122
mirage 2000 - 190ish

**moderately modern design
sea harrier - 42
mirage F1 - 280ish

**old design
mirage III - 158
Draken - 40
F104 - 430ish
F8 - 27

multirole aircraft
**modern design
f16 - 2011
f18 - 820
**moderately modern design
f4 - 1680
**old design
f5 - 354

strike/attack
**modern design
f111 - 281
f117 - 52
a10 - 575
tornado ids - 588

**moderately modern design
a7 - 676
jaguar - 280
harrier II/gr - 268
mirage V - 106
Super etendard - 65

**old design
a4 - 275
a6 - 491
buccaneer - 65
alpha jet - 168
Etendard IV - 9
G91 - 135

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13 years 5 months

Posts: 770

Anyone know when the Italians got the AMX into service?

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11 years 4 months

Posts: 240

first production version produced in may 1989, entered service in november of same year.
http://www.fighter-planes.com/info/amx.htm

I’d say first deliveries to operative squadrons in November of 1989 and what is now called IOC achieved much later (any deployment of this type for first Gulf war in 1991 was not yet possible).
I would suggest Totoro to leave the AMX away from his calculations, focused at 1989 situation.

About the G-91T, MB-326/339 of AMI and Alpha Jets of Luftwaffe double role/training issue, I would suggest the topic stater to make some more researches on the web for the kind of offensive missions these a/c pilots would be eventually asked to undertake.
Eventually, a last resort kind mission when all other assets would have been already spent against the PoV. Not sure at all that Alpha Jets from LW and trainers from AMI could be included in your lists. Anyway, apart from the Ts, as of 1989, circa 60 G-91Y and at least 24 G-91R (last one of this particular version retired only on the 9th of April, 1992, soz link in Italian) seems that were still in service with the AMI.

Unfortunatelly I am not able to share any info in English available on the web about my above statements, but just another link in Italian of a reliable work on the matter (specific infos on squadrons of AMI available on the right menu): http://it.wikibooks.org/wiki/Forze_armate_mondiali_dal_secondo_dopoguerra_al_XXI_secolo/Italia:_Aeronautica_3 which confirms many of the Jane (and other pubblications, mostly available only in paper format) numbers.

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16 years 11 months

Posts: 87

In 1989 the RNLAF was still transitioning to the F-16. Two squadrons (at Eindhoven and Gilze-Rijen) still flew the NF-5, giving a maximum of 36 jets (admittedly: some more where kept in flyable storage, as they were to be transferred to Turkey and Greece). Also, the F-16s were still being delivered and about 20 had been lost in crashes. On an order of 212 F-16s - 20 crashed = 192 - two squadrons still not converted+deliveries in progress (40, likely more) means about 140-150 F-16s in 7 squadrons. Combined that brings some 180 aircraft assigned to NATO (which seems to be the number I had in my memory anyway).