Combat aircraft

Military combat aircraft directly harm enemy forces, with kinetic or electronic attack, or deliberately go into range of enemy weapons. While the current trend is to have a given type of airframe (e.g., helicopter, single/dual engine jet, large jets) take on multiple roles, the classic roles are:

• Fixed-wing fighter
• Attack helicopter
• Attack and bomber aircraft
• Electronic attack
• Reconnaissance aircraft
• air assault airlift
• Combat search and rescue aircraft

These would be distinguished from:

• Transport aircraft that do not go into the area of battle
• Most air refueling tankers
• C3I-ISR aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicles increasingly enter these roles, especially for reconnaissance but more and more for attack.