Not all air forces possess multirole fighter jets . For the purposes of this list, light or ground fighter jets are not counted (such as the F-5 Northrop and the Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot). If this list had been written a year or two ago, Brazil would have made the list (but they are now operating the first of their new Saab Gripen E fighters ).
Here are five air forces lacking multirole fighter jets (or almost lacking in the case of South Africa). 1 Mexico Mexico has approx. 36 light combat aircraft Other combat fixed-wing aircraft: 3x F-5Es, 33 PC-7s Year air force founded: 1913 (or 1915) Personnel size: 30,000 Perhaps the most surprising country that doesn't operate fighter jets is Mexico.
Since the 1980s, the Northrop F-5E light fighter has been the main fighter jet in the Mexican Air Force (used for light attack roles). However, according to FlightGlobal , Mexico only has three of these aging jets left. Mexico also has around 33 Pilatus PC-7 Turbo Trainers.
These prop aircraft can be used in some combat roles (they are configured for a combat role in Mexico). It may be surprising that the world's largest Spanish-speaking country almost lacks a combat air force wing. Perhaps, like Canada to the north, Mexico doesn't feel like it needs to invest deeply in such capabilities when it has the overwhelmingly powerful United States as its (generally friendly) neighbor.
Mexico's Horizontec startup company is hoping its Halcón 2 light aircraft will be the start of a robust aviation .
