Only 20 Air Forces Fly Airborne Early Warning Aircraft — China Now Fields More Than the USAF
Just 20 of the 162 air forces tracked by GlobalMilitary.net operate airborne early warning aircraft in 2026; the United States leads with 98, but 83 are carrier-based Navy Hawkeyes, leaving the US Air Force with 15 aging E-3 Sentries against China's 81 land-based radar aircraft.
Airborne early warning and control aircraft — the flying radar stations that watch airspace and direct air battles — remain one of the rarest capabilities in military aviation. Of the 162 air forces tracked in the GlobalMilitary.net ranking of the world's air forces, only 20 operate an AEW&C type in 2026, with 291 aircraft in active service worldwide; the other 142 air arms field none. The United States holds the largest fleet on paper, but the composition of that lead tells a more complicated story.
Of the 98 American aircraft, 83 are carrier-based US Navy E-2C/D Hawkeyes, with 15 more E-2Ds on order. The US Air Force itself operates just 15 E-3B/C/G Sentries. Its designated successor, the E-7 Wedgetail, has 26 airframes on order for the service — and none yet in service.
China, by contrast, fields 81 aircraft across three land-based types: 60 KJ-500s — 40 with the PLA Air Force and 20 with PLA Naval Aviation — alongside 17 KJ-200s and 4 KJ-2000s. The disparity is striking against overall fleet size: the United States flies 12,996 active military aircraft to China's 6,341 — twice the fleet, yet fewer land-based radar planes.
Behind the two leaders, the club thins out quickly:
- Japan: 20 E-2C/D (7 on order)
- Pakistan: 14 Saab 2000 Erieye
- Russia: 12 A-50
- Saudi Arabia: 7 (5 E-3A, 2 Saab 2000)
- Egypt: 7 E-2C; Thailand: 7 Saab 340
- Australia: 6 E-7A; Taiwan: 6 E-2K
- United Arab Emirates: 5 GlobalEye
- South Korea: 4 E-737 Peace Eye; Turkey: 4 E-7T Peace Eagle
- India: 3 A-50EI (2 on order); Chile: 2 ex-RAF E-3D
Europe's national fleets total just 19 aircraft, and that figure includes Turkey's 4. Without Turkey, the continent musters 15: France operates 7 — four air force E-3Fs and three navy E-2C/Ds, with three E-2Ds on order — followed by Greece with 4 EMB-145H Erieyes, Poland with 2 Saab 340s, the United Kingdom with a single E-7A (2 more on order) and Sweden with one Saab 340 and 3 GlobalEyes on order. Ukraine has 2 Saab 340s on order but none yet active. One caveat applies to all these figures: NATO's jointly owned E-3A fleet at Geilenkirchen is an alliance asset and is not counted in any national total — the European numbers cover national fleets only.
The American land-based fleet is not only small but strained. The War Zone reported that the US Air Force E-3 fleet is down from 31 aircraft in 2023, posted a mission-capable rate of 55.68 percent in fiscal year 2024, and last took delivery of an airframe in 1992, still flying on obsolete TF33 engines. The E-7 program that is meant to replace it nearly disappeared: the Pentagon proposed cancelling the Wedgetail in its FY2026 budget plan, according to Defense News, before Congress restored more than $1 billion in funding, The War Zone reported. A space-based replacement for the airborne radar mission is not expected before the early 2030s at best, according to the same outlet.
Renewal is nonetheless under way across the club: 26 E-7s on order for the US Air Force, seven E-2s for Japan, three GlobalEyes for Sweden — and NATO itself selected Saab's GlobalEye in July 2026 to replace its own E-3A fleet. The pattern echoes another scarce enabler of modern air power: a companion GlobalMilitary.net analysis found that only 30 air forces can refuel aircraft in flight. Radar coverage, like fuel, remains a capability most of the world's air arms borrow rather than own.
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