Changing the balance of power – Worldwide air force`s capability turbulences

In past Century, the air power had undergone a significant journey. In its humble beginnings during WWI an airplane proved itself a perspective and highly capable new weapon. WWII demonstrated the importance of air superiority for waging a global warfare. The Cold War mastered technologies enabling air power to be not only a weapon a mass destruction but also a surgical tool. On one hand, an aircrafthas become a state of art technology, yet on the other hand a cost for its development, procurement, and servicing grew into an astronomic levels. Therefore, since mid 1970s there have been trends to shiftairpower from quantity into quality, which has gained a new moment with the end of the Cold War. Starting with the first Gulf War, in past two decades demonstrated a growing importance of a multirole fighter aircraftthat is able to carry out a full specter of missions for minimal costs. When analyzing five most potent airpowers of the 21st century, we can witness that this is the trend is on and it will surely continue in future. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]