the most powerful- if not the most powerful forces on earth, in a head-to-head matchup

to determine just which branch is the best at their primary purpose: killing bad guys

and breaking their stuff.

For the sake of this thought exercise, we're going to ignore the normal realities of warfare

and focus solely on firepower and assets.

After all, in a realistic war scenario the US Navy could do something the US Air Force

could never do: blockade ports and stop the shipments of supplies.

So we're going to be pitting man and machine in a straight up deathmatch, and find out

which of the two services comes out on top.

Despite their close partnership with the US Navy, for this fight the Marines are out-

sorry sailors, but you're fighting this one on your own.

Likewise, US Army forces which typically help provide ground security for Air Force assets

are also out, leaving the Zoomies to fend for themselves.

Most of this war will naturally happen in the air, though without the support of their

sister services, the US Air Force does have one advantage that the Navy doesn't- the ability

to deploy a moderate ground force against Navy targets.

The Navy after all isn't just about ships, there's a long link of resupply, repair and

resupply centers that are vital for keeping America's fleets out at sea.

US Air Force Security Forces personnel are traditionally speaking, military police no

different than their counterparts in the other branches.

However, during the Vietnam War, the Air Force realized that it couldn't always rely on the

other services for protection of its air fields in hostile territory, and quickly established

a training program to convert their military police personnel into a small, but competent

infantry force.

Today, Security Forces personnel are all trained in air base defense, and receive qualification

training with heavy squad weapons such as the .50 caliber machine gun and the Mark-19

automatic grenade launcher.

Some of these personnel are even qualified for air assault operations.

Numbers are hard to pin down, but there's an estimated 25,000 US Air Force Security

Forces personnel currently on active duty, giving the Air Force a sizable ground assault

element that the Navy can't match.

While US Navy Masters-at-Arms are trained in protecting ships and shore installations,

their focus and training isn't as exhaustive in ground combat roles as Air Force Security

Forces personnel.

With the focus shifting from protecting air fields from unsophisticated terror and insurgent

threats, to a potential showdown against regular Chinese or Russian infantry units, US Air

Force Security Forces personnel have recently begun a program to seriously upgrade their

standards, training, and equipment to meet these near-peer competitor threats.

The stated goal of the US Air Force is to produce a force comparable to US Army light

infantry, powerful enough to repel a coordinated attack from near-peer competitors.

This means new tools such as anti-tank and anti-air man portable weapon systems and fire

support platforms such as mortars, as well as a stronger emphasis on assault and defense

operations.

On the ground, it's clear that the Air Force has a serious advantage, being able to deploy

a sizable force to seize vital US Navy ground installations and repel any assaults against

its facilities, but the primary combatants in this showdown are going to be aircraft

and ships, so how do they measure up and what can they add to this fight?

The first step in this battle between the services will be in establishing air superiority,

as the primary armament of both services are going to be its aircraft.

In the Navy's corner we have the F/A-18 Superhornet, an aircraft developed to counter advances

in Soviet fighter design.

Turns out, the Navy completely overcompensated and created one of the most formidable fighter

aircraft ever built.

Responding to the Navy's Superhornet threat is going to be the F-15 Strike Eagle, another

development created in response to the advancements made in Soviet fighter design.

Both aircraft come from the same manufacturer, meaning they share many of the same strengths,

making this a difficult matchup to determine.

The F-15 is an air superiority fighter, but it is primarily geared for a ground-attack

role.

The Hornet is instead a jack-of-all-trades, doing everything from air superiority to suppression

of enemy air defenses, recon, and even aerial refueling.

That versatility gives the Navy greater flexibility, and makes sense for a service which has limited

space on its aircraft carriers- the better buy for your money is the aircraft that can

do multiple things well, rather than a single specialized task.

But, in this fight, which is better?

The F-15 is powered by dual Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan engines producing twenty nine

thousand pounds of thrust at full afterburner, versus the Hornet's General Electric F414

engines putting out twenty two thousand pounds of thrust at full afterburner.

This gives the F15 a whopping speed advantage of 700 miles an hour, with the F15 clocking

in at 1,875 mph (3018 kph), versus the F18 at 1,190 mph (1915 kph).

F-15s are going to get to the fight first, every time, and if they get in trouble, they'll

easily outrun any pursuing F18s, leaving them in the dust.

By comparison, F18s trying to flee from the Air Force's Strike Eagles, are going to

wind up getting splashed.

The Eagle also has a greater fuel and weapons capacity than the Hornet, with the F15 carrying

up to 23,000 pounds of fuel and weapons versus the F18's 17,759.

More fuel and more missiles means the Air Force's fighter can stay in the fight longer,

and shoot more- and gives the F15 nearly double the range of the Navy's F18.

However, the Navy's f18 can carry the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-radiation missile, giving

it a robust capability in destroying enemy ground and even airborne radar, while the

F-15 cannot.

Conversely, the F-15 can carry the GBU-28 bunker buster bomb, while the F-18 can't.

The F-18 is slightly more agile than the F-15 however, which would give it the advantage

in close-quarters dogfighting, although as many enemy combatants around the world have

found out, the F-15 is an absolutely terrifying dogfighter itself.

Targeting and tracking systems on both aircraft are nearly identical, given that both aircraft

operate for the same country.

When it comes to long range detection, the APG-82 radar has greater capabilities than

the APG-79 radar used by the Hornet, though just how much greater capabilities is a mystery

as the data is a closely guarded secret.

What's clear is that Air Force Strike Eagles will get to the fight first, see their targets

first, and fire first, putting the Navy's Superhornet at a disadvantage.

However, the F-18 is equipped with infrared search and tracking capabilities, giving it

a chance to take on stealth aircraft at close range.

With 769 Hornets versus the Air Force's 454 Eagles, the numbers advantage may seem to

be in favor of the Navy- except the 769 Hornets the Navy possesses represents the entirety

of its air-attack and air superiority forces.

By comparison, the US Air Force can call on an additional 1,017 F-16 Fighting Falcons,

and 229 operational F-35 Lightnings.

The Navy's own F-35s only number at 21, and are currently still only used for training.

However, the absolute silver-bullet in the sky for the Air Force, is its fleet of F-22

Raptors, numbering at 186.

While low in number, the Raptor is without comparison the world's most advanced air superiority

fighter, featuring a radar cross section the size of a marble.

Its armament may be limited as it's forced to carry its weapons internally, but its powerful

radar allows it to detect enemy aircraft and engage them at beyond visual range.

While the Air Force initially wanted a fleet of almost a thousand of these incredible aircraft,

the extreme pricetag upwards of $220 million dollars per aircraft, as well as a lack of

a realistic threat to face off against by any other nation, shelved the original production

run and limited it to the number the Air Force currently operates.

Simply put, in an air battle the US Navy is going to come out losing badly.

Not only is it completely dwarfed by the numbers of Air Force air superiority fighters, the

Air Force's F-22 presents a threat that an F-18 pilot is unlikely to survive.

Luckily, the number of these airborne assassins is relatively low.

However, the Navy can call upon support from its large fleet of warships, who thanks to

modern battle networks, can add their firepower to an air battle.

While its fleet of dozens of attack submarines may seem like an odd fish out on this fight,

many of these are capable of taking on land-attack roles thanks to the addition of cruise missiles

to their magazines.

With a range of 1,550 miles (2,500 km), Navy subs could deliver crippling blows to US Air

Force installations- with little if any warning.

Likewise, its fleet of 91 destroyers and 19 corvettes could all strike at Air Force airfields.

A vast inventory of anti-air missiles such as the RIM-174 and the RIM-162 Evolved Sea

Sparrow can project serious anti-aircraft firepower into a fight, leaving US Air Force

planes at risk in any air battle within range of US Navy ships.

The US Air Force is not the primary service for neutralizing an enemy fleet, that task

falls on the US Navy, but it is still very well equipped to deal with hostile vessels.

The AGM-158 JASSM (jassam) and the AGM-86 are both extremely long range stand-off attack

air-launched cruise missiles, packing a thousand pound warhead capable of sinking enemy ships.

The AGM-158C is the latest iteration of these anti-ship missiles, and features greatly improved

technology allowing it to locate, track, and target hostile vessels independently while

ignoring civilian shipping.

These missiles are all low-observable, making them difficult to spot on radar, and are programmed

to fly extremely close to the ocean's surface, which makes them even more difficult to spot

and target by a ship's anti-missile defense systems.

However, none of these weapons are supersonic, as the US is currently coming far behind Russia

and China in developing supersonic weapons.

This means the individual success rate of each missile is dramatically lowered when

pitted up against the Navy's sophisticated anti-missile defense systems, though the AGM-158C

is capable of coordinating with other missiles to conduct swarm attacks, approaching a target

from multiple directions in overwhelming numbers.

Increasingly, this fight is turning bad for the US Navy.

With an air superiority fleet that's less than half the size of the US Air Force, and

with aircraft outmatched technologically by the Air Force, the Navy will never be able

to establish air superiority.

Even more importantly though, the Navy's Hornets will never be able to establish air superiority

at the stand-off attack distances required to stop Air Force bomber aircraft from launching

anti-ship attacks.

While Navy fleet defenses are likely capable of chewing up most of the Air Force's surface-attack

aircraft, the Air Force's ability to attack with long-range precision weapons means their

vulnerable bomber aircraft can target and fire from well outside of the air-defense

envelope of the Navy.

One way the Navy plans on protecting its surface fleets from this threat against a near-peer

competitor such as China or Russia, is to simply establish Combat Air Patrols at greatly

extended ranges, using F-18s in tanker mode, or new tanker drones, to refuel F-18s assigned

to long-range air patrols.

However, no other nation can bring to bear against the US Navy the sheer numbers and

capabilities of the US Air Force, and in a real-world situation, the Navy would always

rely on Air Force help to protect its ships.

Airpower will determine this battle, and the Navy loses in that arena.

While Navy ships would be able to launch attacks against Air Force airfields and ground installations,

they won't last long against coordinated Air Force attacks by fleets of B1 Lancers and

B52s equipped with stand-off long range munitions and protected by fleets of F-16s, F-15s, F-35s,

and F-22s.

Air Force planes would always be able to redeploy to civilian or even improvised air fields,

but Navy fighters will find that their only safe landing site- their aircraft carriers-

will very quickly end up at the bottom of the sea.

With complete and total air superiority, the US Air Force is without a doubt the victor

of this conflict, though in reality, this conclusion is no surprise.

Air power has been the single most important weapon in modern war since World War II, leaving

any foe without suitable air power at the absolute mercy of even an inferior army that

is supported by a competent air force.

However, it's also a matter of different mission sets that sees the Air Force declared a winner.

The US Navy is indeed tasked with air superiority, but its vessels are also designed for a wide

range of different responsibilities from surface warfare to subsurface warfare, and the escort

and deployment of ground combat troops to beaches around the world.

The Air Force however has a far more limited scope of missions- air superiority, recon,

and ground-attack- and its equipment is thus far more capable in these arenas than the

Navy's.

In truth, neither service could win a war without the other, and the two are equal and

vital partners in ensuring the United States military remains the most powerful on earth.

Buuuutttt, squids would totally get their butt kicked by zoomies any day of the week.

Now for how the Navy would fare against a competitor like China go watch “US Navy

must do this to defeat China in a war.”

Or if you're ready for a change of pace, click this other video instead!