In current military parlance, a strike fighter is a multirole combat aircraft designed to operate both as an attack aircraft and as an air superiority fighter. As a category, it is distinct from fighter-bombers, and is closely related to the concept of interdictor aircraft, although it puts more emphasis on aerial combat capabilities.
Examples of notable contemporary strike fighters are the American McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the Russian Sukhoi Su-34, and the Chinese Shenyang J-16.
Beginning in the 1940s, the term "strike fighter" was occasionally used in navies to refer to fighter aircraft capable of performing air-to-surface strikes, such as the Westland Wyvern,[1] Blackburn Firebrand[2] and Blackburn Firecrest.
The term "light weight tactical strike fighter (LWTSF)" was used to describe the aircraft to meet the December 1953 NATO specification NBMR-1.[3] Amongst the designs submitted to the competition were the Aerfer Sagittario 2, Breguet Br.1001 Taon, Dassault Étendard VI, Fiat G.91 and Sud-Est Baroudeur.The term entered normal use in the United States Navy[4] by the end of the 1970s, becoming the official[5] description of the new McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. In 1983, the U.S. Navy even renamed each existing Fighter Attack Squadron to Strike Fighter Squadron to emphasize[6] the air-to-surface mission (as the "Fighter Attack" designation was confused with the "Fighter" designation, which flew pure air-to-air missions).
This name quickly spread to non-maritime use. When the F-15E Strike Eagle came into service, it was originally called a "dual role fighter",[7] but it instead quickly became known as a "strike fighter".
See main article: Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. In 1995, the U.S. military's Joint Advanced Strike Technology program changed its name to the Joint Strike Fighter program.[8] The project consequently resulted in the development of the F-35 Lightning II family of fifth generation multirole fighters to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability.
Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
Shenyang J-16
TAI TF-X Kaan