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An-124 Ruslan: World's largest military transport now
With the An-225 gone, Simple Flying tracks the big military transports and which ones you can actually follow.
Simple Flying's new rundown of the world's largest military transports starts with one that is no longer flying. The Antonov An-225, the largest aircraft ever built, was destroyed at Hostomel Airport in February 2022.
That leaves the An-124 Ruslan as the biggest military transport still in service. Behind it come the Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy, China's Y-20 and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III.
What these aircraft move and where they park depends on who operates them. Some are easy to follow on public flight trackers. A few never appear at all.
An-124 Ruslan: the biggest, with two very different lives
Simple Flying says Antonov designed the An-124 in the 1980s as a Soviet strategic airlifter. Just over 30 of the 55 built are still active.
Antonov Airlines runs seven of them commercially, so those aircraft file flight plans and broadcast their positions like any cargo operator. You can find them on Simple Flying's Live Flight Tracker.
The Volga-Dnepr fleet is the sanctions story. Simple Flying reports the airline lists nine An-124s, with only three active. One, RA-82078, landed at Toronto Pearson on Feb. 27, 2022 with COVID-19 testing kits the Canadian government had ordered. Canada closed its airspace to Russian-registered aircraft the next day. A judge rejected Volga-Dnepr's appeal in August 2026, and the aircraft has not moved since. Three more are stuck in Germany. The Russian Aerospace Forces' own An-124s stay off civil tracking entirely.
C-5M Super Galaxy: big, based in the US, and only sometimes trackable
The C-5M is the largest aircraft in the US Air Force inventory. The service operates 52, all upgraded from earlier C-5B and C-5C airframes, according to Simple Flying.
Four bases host them: Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Travis Air Force Base in California, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas and Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts.
Tracking one is inconsistent. Air Mobility Command aircraft often broadcast ADS-B on routine logistics and training sorties under REACH callsigns, then switch the transponder off for sensitive missions. Simple Flying names Dover as the most reliable place to see one on the ground.
C-17 Globemaster III: the one you are most likely to spot
The C-17 is smaller than the An-124 and the C-5M but far more common. Boeing built 279 between 1991 and 2015, and about 272 are still flying with eight operators, including 223 in the US Air Force, per Simple Flying. It can carry an M1 Abrams tank and land on roughly 3,500 feet of unpaved strip, which is why it flies far more sorties than the C-5M.
Operators include the UK with eight, India with 11, plus Australia, Canada, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait. A multinational Heavy Airlift Wing flies three from Pápa Air Base in Hungary. In the US, Joint Base Charleston and Dover have large concentrations.
C-17s are the most visible military transports on civil trackers because so many of their missions are routine. Same caveat as the C-5M: sensitive missions mean the transponder goes off.
Y-20: China's workhorse, invisible to trackers
The Y-20 is the newest and fastest-growing type on the list. Simple Flying reports China has roughly 95 to 100 airframes by 2026, a fleet that now outnumbers the C-5M. It can carry 66 metric tons up to about 4,847 miles, enough for one Type 99A tank or two Type 15s.
Do not try to track one. PLAAF transports stay off civil tracking networks. Satellite imagery, state media and spotters are how their movements get documented. China has two confirmed bases abroad: Djibouti since 2017 and Ream in Cambodia since 2025.
A400M: the European spotter's best bet
The Airbus A400M-180 carries the smallest payload of these five, 37 tonnes, and was meant to fill the gap between the C-130 Hercules and the C-17. Four turboprops let it use unpaved strips while still flying intercontinental routes.
Germany is the largest operator: all 53 are based at Wunstorf Air Base, with the final delivery in April 2026, per Simple Flying. France has 24 with 25 more on order, the RAF has 22 Atlas C.1s, and Spain has 14 with 13 outstanding. By March 2026, Airbus had handed over 139 of the 178 aircraft ordered, leaving 39 to build.
For European readers, this is the most realistically spottable aircraft here. The fleet flies frequent training sorties over populated countries, and most of those flights are not operationally sensitive.
What it means for your next spotting trip
If you want to see a giant military transport, skip the An-124 and the Y-20. Simple Flying's tracker is most likely to catch a C-17, an occasional C-5M, or an A400M over Europe. If you are near Dover, that is the most reliable place to watch the C-5M ramp. Bring something to do; military flying runs on hurry up and wait.
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