Yes but not by the French airforce, but its used by India and all the Rafales that Dassault shows at the expo’s (like the Paris airshow). To my knowledge its not known how the pylons are sealed of. So IDK much work it would be for the Fransh airforce to retrofit there own F3-R for the 8 missiles configuration.
Lets not resort to insults
If you don’t think this plane is a straight up upgrade to the 2000-5F in every way, I don’t have the words lmao.
The flight model is amazing, the radar is amazing, the MICA are deadly when used right. It’s never been so easy to defeat a long range Aim120.
2 Likes
never felt the raf as a downgrade from the 2K-5.
you’re wrong about letting the MICA as they are just because you think they’re strong enough and not because their behaviour is wrong
FM is amazing? maybe but still not so correct specially at low speed and the radar doesn’t behave like an AESA, not even as a PESA.
just because you feel it right for you doesn’t mean that the plane is fine and should be left as it is
6 Likes
We’re NOT getting an AESA functioning like an AESA until all the others nations gets one. I thought this was obvious. This is already the best radar in the game, right now.
It handles like a dream at high speed. Do you really need more ? Low speed combat is entirely irrelevant in Warthunder at this point. When was the last time you had a full dogfight ? Energy retention, acceleration, handling at high speed are the most important things, and Rafale has it all.
They’re more than strong enough for the game. Again, it’s a freaking PVP game, play DCS if you want a full simulation. Buffing their behaviour would just make them overpowered.
Honestly, it sounds like many of you are just extremely biased and want Rafale to be the best plane in the game, period. That’s not how it works. That’s not how it is supposed to work.
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This is my favourite plane too. I just want balance in a PVP game. I’m tired of Gaijin’s bullshit with the revolving meta too. F15E dominance was boring af to play against. Gripen A dominance with the 100m multipath meta was even worse. Right now with the Su-27 buff, the Rafale’s avionics and the US/EFT long range weapons, there is some semblance of balance. It’s a far more healthy meta than during the last 4 or so patches.
2 Likes
then why do you persist with nonsense like “the game is like this”? no it’s not, at least not 100%, low speed combat can always occur and BFM is still relevant, specially in SIM AB (ok it’s a niche but at least some still play it).
i do want balance in PVP but neutering (or artificially buffing) vehicles for the sake of it is not my shot, if that’s the case then there’s no point of making historically accurate suggestions or bug reports based on documentation or else because then the game wouldn’t be so different from ace combat (a perfectly MP balanced game btw /s)
And it’s mine.
Balance and fun > Historically accurate. Always. The gameplay MUST come first. You can’t have a working game if you don’t do this. Honestly if it was up to me I would give 200 CM minimum to every single plane past 12.0. Lacking in CM count makes some planes absolutely miserable. If they can get more historically, give them more tho.
I disagree with Gaijin way of handling bug reports very much btw. To put it simply, it’s a bullshit system in every way, and it’s becoming worse and worse as they are adding new modern stuff to the game since documentations is obviously very hard to come by.
Introducing a full working AESA on the Rafale right now, in the current patch, would be an insane decision. We’re talking instant refresh, impossible to notch, and able to track a bunch of different target at once, this is a monster of a radar here. With a full AESA we could point at the entire enemy team at 15km, look 8 of them, fire 8 MICA at once and go home. I’m perfectly content holding on simply what’s the best radar in the game at the moment. Do we really need more, right now ?
MICA is the same issue. If you give it the same range as the Aim120A, it shots from being the best WVR missile, to the best missile in the game with zero possible contest. It’s fine as it is. Gaijin decided that french planes are close combat monster ever since they introduced the Magic 2, and they’re keeping at it. If you want something that can BVR from the other side of the map, it’s simply the wrong nation.
The plane is strong in the current meta. Really, really strong. It does require more skill to play than a F15E, for sure, but it has potential through the roof if you know what you’re doing. I have the F15JM, I know how it works, it’s completely braindead. I’d rather not every plane in the game turned into this.
2 Likes
mica is great at bvr imo and the radar is fine for now
With a full AESA we could point at the entire enemy team at 15km, look 8 of them, fire 8 MICA at once and go home.
You can do this already and with any other radar.
No you can’t, you have to change TWS target between every shot. AESA can track 8 at once.
So you dont even know how real tws works. What we have ingame is meme. Irl you can literally designate tws tracks from 1to X and then start launching. No plane in world allows you to launch everything at once. Mechanical tws works same as aesa, its just not constantly updated, otherwise it works the same.
Blame gaijin for adding scuffed TWS where you cant predesignate tracks.
You’re right on that one. I’m not that versed into how real radar works in detail. However a full working AESA would be undeniably a game changer. Can’t we just be happy with having the best radar in the game as of right now, again ?
Until rafale and mica are not what they should be no.
Yes it would but i dont believe gaijin can even do it to this level anytime soon.
For finding targets, you still need some sweep and dwell time otherwise the radar won’t see anything.
You’ll have to wait for a long time. MICA IR aren’t even on the table as of now considering how insane they would be. Meteor even less. That missile have a NEZ of 60km IRL. AESA will probably be formally introduced with the japanese F-2, and most nations ingame don’t even have a PESA in their top tier fighter yet.
A buff I’d like to see on the Rafale would be the ability to fire MICA EM from the IRST. That would be kind of crazy strong in Sim however.
I guess it was not clear that i implied mica em and not adding any other missiles as long as the game doesn’t introduce better missiles as those currently in game.
Same for the F15E and F15C honestly. And Russian radars are even worse, the radar of the SMT can take up to 15 seconds to first see a target and then update with their direction. It’s honestly one of the most painful thing about russian radar right now.
Rafale is refreshing significantly faster than those, and is significantly better at tracking with a wider angle of scanning.
Because people want to play real planes, the plane we have in game does not exist in real life, we are playing a fake aircraft made up in the mind of some dev