Public identity only

Fighter and attack types have ICAO designators, published overall size, and public names. They are in Aerolex as identities. They are not in Aerolex as a targeting aid, a threat picture, or a combat model.

A type entry here holds the designator, the maker, the family, the published overall dimensions, and the services named in open sources. Nothing else.

Air-superiority fighters are built to own the sky: the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor are the American reference types. Multirole fighters trade a little purity for flexibility: the F-16, the F/A-18E Super Hornet, the Dassault Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Saab Gripen. Strike fighters, like the F-15E Strike Eagle, optimize for delivering weapons at range while keeping fighter performance.

Attack jets are a separate, older class built to work close to ground forces. The A-10 Thunderbolt II, designed around its gun, and the Sukhoi Su-25 are the public reference types. The AV-8B Harrier II adds vertical landing to the same job. The snapshot holds 21 fighters and 6 attack jets.

Generation is a shorthand for the technology era. Fourth generation covers the 1970s teen-series designs: F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18. Generation four and a half adds modern radar, weapons integration, and cockpits to those airframes: the F-15EX Eagle II, the F/A-18E Block III, the Rafale, the Typhoon, the Gripen E. Fifth generation means stealth designed in from the start: the F-22 and the F-35, with the J-20 and Su-57 as the public Chinese and Russian answers.

Production status matters here too. The F-15E line is closed; the F-15EX is the Eagle still being built. The F-16, first flown in 1974, remains in production for export.

Lockheed Martin builds the F-16 and the F-35. Boeing builds the F-15 and the F/A-18. Northrop Grumman built the B-2 and builds the B-21. Dassault builds the Rafale. The Eurofighter consortium builds the Typhoon. Saab builds the Gripen. Sukhoi and MiG build the Russian lines. Manufacturer names identify types. They are not a partnership, an endorsement, or a license to use marks.

If a fact is not in ICAO 8643, a manufacturer public sheet, or an attributable public article, it does not go in Aerolex. Nothing in this chapter is a sensor list, a weapons load, a radar cross-section, or a performance envelope beyond published overall size. Operators are services, never units.