Rabat – Morocco has ranked fourth in Africa in terms of military aircraft fleet strength, according to a new report from the Global Fire Power.
Egypt leads Africa, with 1,069 military aircraft. It also ranked 8th out of 145 globally. The US tops the global list, followed by Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, and Pakistan.
Ninth on the list is Turkey, which comes ahead of France, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Italy.
UAE ranked 20 on the list and is followed by Algeria, which is ranked second in Africa in terms of military aircraft fleet strength.
Algeria was positioned 21 globally with 547 aircraft power.
Meanwhile, Morocco is 38th out of 145 on the list behind Jordan (37th) and Myanmar (36), but ahead of Venezuela (39), Singapore (40), and Peru (246).
South Africa ranked in the 44th position.
Morocco’s airpower fleet includes 83 fighters on stock, as well as 64 helicopters and two tanker fleets.
Currently, Morocco is ranked 61 of 145 out of the 2023 military strength.
The North African country is also 29th among the top 40 largest importers of major arms, according to the 2023 report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The report highlighted that the majority of arms supplied to Africa were exported to “Algeria (–58 per cent) followed by Morocco (–30 percent).”
The key suppliers were Russia, accounting for 40 percent of African imports of major arms, the USA (16 percent%, China at 9.8%, and France at 7.6%.
Meanwhile, the SIPRI report ranked Algeria 18th among the 40 largest importers in 2022. Russia remains Algeria’s largest arms supplier with 73% followed by Germany and France.
