The F-16 Fighting Falcon, which made its first operational flight in 1979, is one of the world’s most widely used fighter planes still in service. While the aircraft has been overshadowed in capability by newer, more modern planes, a series of periodic upgrades have ensured that the F-16 continues to remain a feared fighter jet. Despite being nearly five decades old, the F-16 remains a regular presence in the news, with its pilots still credited with successful strikes to this day.
The F-16’s original manufacturer was General Dynamics. Following its acquisition by Lockheed Corporation in 1993 and its merger with Martin Marietta in 1995, the onus of manufacturing and maintaining the aircraft fell on the newly formed conglomerate, Lockheed Martin. The company continues to manufacture the F-16s to this day, and the aircraft is still in demand. Following a delay in the acquisition of the F-35, even the U.S. military has decided to extend the life of its existing F-16 fleet, some of which are expected to remain in service for the next two decades.
The F-16 is used by several world militaries. Lockheed Martin estimates that more than 3,100 F-16s remain operational as of 2025, spread across 29 countries. With more than 900 active F-16s in its inventory as of 2022, the U.S. military remains the world’s biggest operator of F-16s. Other primary beneficiaries of the F-16 program include Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and Taiwan — all of which have more than 200 F-16s in their fleet.
The issue with counting the fleet size of aircraft is that it is a dynamic number that changes constantly. New planes are added, while old ones are retired, and in some unfortunate instances, there are airframe losses due to crashes and war. Then there are orders for new aircraft, which is almost always a messy business with a history of modifications and cancelations.
Nevertheless, as of 2025, the largest operator of the Lockheed-Martin F-16 fighter jets outside of the United States is Turkey, which has roughly 230 F-16s. Egypt, with 218 F-16s, comes in second place, and Israel, with 174 active F-16s, takes third place.
Other countries that have more than 100 F-16s in their fleet per 2022 data include South Korea (167), Several other militaries have a sizable number of F-16s in their fleet including Denmark and the Netherlands.
As outlined earlier, these numbers pale in comparison to the United States’ fleet of F-16s, which, as of 2024, stood at over 950. This number also makes the F-16 the most commonly used fighter jet by the U.S. military. The second-most common fighter aircraft type used by the U.S. military is the F/A-18 Hornet/Super Hornet series, of which there are roughly 800.