Which countries have the best fighter jets?

The sheer quality of the aircraft alone as a machine for war. Quantity and such does not matter in this case. Durability is something I am also particularly looking for over offensive power.

For the sake of variety, more than one country's military aircraft. And in the case where the second best one (assuming it's from a different place) is worse than the first one, say exactly how much worse it is. Same goes to the ones below the second one, and then below the third, etc.

Not really knowing that much about the Military, I would imagine America and Russia. I rarely here about fighter jets developed outside those two.

America has the largest military budget in the world, and tends to spend it on quality more than quantity. Their stuff - like the F-22 Raptor - is leagues ahead of everyone else's in performance, but doesn't necessarily get them the best value-for-money.

The real matter of debate is who has the second-best fighters. On that count, the EU's stuff is pretty sophisticated, not least because Western Europe shares a lot of tech with the U.S.. I wouldn't be surprised if Israel's home-grown kit was pretty badass, though, given the disproportionate amount they spend on their military.

As for the former communist countries, their stuff is pretty basic from what I hear. It's just that it's fast, tough, and easy to mass-produce.

Of course, I'm no expert on all this.

Of the fifth and newest generation of fighter jets, the F-22 Raptor is the only one that is currently in service. Others are certainly in development, but currently aside from the Raptor the most advanced jets are fourth-generational largely consisting of jets introduced from roughly 1980-2010 (wiki article)

If you're looking for durability more than anything else, you want an attack fighter. The American one is the A 10 and the Russian/Soviet is the Su 25.

The A-10 Warthog being the more utterly fucking badass of the two, of course.

The U.S. does have the absolute best stealth tech bar none.

US Airforce is nearly as big as all other countries airfoces combined. They also have the best planes by far. If they went to war with them, the enemy planes would be disables before they ever got off the ground, or even saw the attackers coming, thanks to fighters that not only have extreme effective ranges but are also nearly invisible in radar.

^ The Russians outnumber the USAF as far as sheer number of aircraft are concerned. Same with the Chinese.

Harrier Jump Jets are nice, quirky little things. And require even more skilled piloting than normal jets, if my sources are correct - protip: they probably aren't.

However, yeah, I'd say US.

And require even more skilled piloting than normal jets,

No wonder the Marines like them. They want to feel superior to the ego-stroking flyboys in the Air Force.

I don't think durabilty is really an issue with fighter jets. If you get hit with a missile you're going to go down no matter how tough your jet is. I suppose some might be able to take a few machine gun bullets, but I don't think armour is going to make a big difference there either.

And yeah, I would say America have the best.

Actually durability is a major concern. The ability to survive only one missile strike is a major asset, even if only for limping back to base. The F-16 is quite famous for being durable. I heard of one instance where an Israeli pilot was hit. Once he managed to land he found that one of his wings were practically missing (smoke had obscured his vision until then).

Also, I feel asking for “best fighter” is an exercise in futility. What is most important? Armaments? Agility? Speed?

Seems to be looking for overall combat performance, with something of a weighting towards survivability.

^^ F-15. Hit an A-4 Skyhawk in mid-air and practically lost the right wing. The pilot did not know how bad the damage was until he landed. In his own words more or less "Had I known the extent of the damage in the air I would have ejected."

@ durable aircraft:

The A-10 can easily eat a MANPADS missile or three and still make it back. It's practically invulnerable to 23mm rounds or weaker in the firing window one has against an A-10.

photos of planes that survived missiles