A bit late to reply here/
The maximum an Eurofigther can carry is 8 Meteor and 2 IRIS-T/ASRAAM. This is obviously a theorical maximum loadout that is never used on any operational scenario.
It’s still montruous but the 10 to 14 Meteor figure is nonsense.
The Rafale would be able to mount either 4 Meteor and 2 MICA or 2 Meteor and 6 MICA on later version (F4).
While it’s worse than the Eurofighter, a game is not only decided by who has the biggest number of missile. Gameplay when everyone will sling BVR missile 100Km away will be very different from today so we cannot really guess how it’ll look like.
Just for reference the F-15EX can carry up to 22 AIM-120D (MURICAAAA F*CK YEAAAAHHH). But since the 120D is worse than the Meteor it should be managable while playing the Rafale.
I don’t know why you think the MICA NG will come mutch later than the METEOR. Gaijin mostly add vehicule/ missile based on their capabilities not their time of introduction.
The 60km no escape zone on the Meteor is great but we don’t know at what altitude this nomber is for or if it’s against a figther jet or an AWACS.
The MICA NG will have the advantage of being very maneuvrable even after long range (capable of 50G turn even after 80km while an 120C7 will be just gliding down without any maneuveuring at that point). The MICA IR NG is also a amazing capabily. A complete passive shot at 100km away is always great (especialy if jamming and stleath is implemented).
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I know and knew that but as the fellow gentle-ass i replied to was a fervent defender of 12 and more missiles on a Typhoon i tried to at least get why he assume such a loadout would be balanced when most planes that’ll come in game will have 10 missiles for a maximum + most would not have access to METEOR or have a low count of them.
if you say the 14 Meteors on the EF is nonesense then this is as well. it is only achievable by mounting double rails on the fuselage…
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True i just wanted to point out the monster that the F-15EX could be if they added this kind of quadruple mount.
It’s been tested with 12 missiles (10 AIM-120 and 2 AIM-9X) but yeah the 22 is sweet dream like the 14 on the EF.
I hope they don’t put ingame those kind of “theorical” loadout and stay with more acceptable one ( 6/8 missile on the Rafale/ 10 for the EF, 12 for the F-15)
I agree. we dont really need those BS loadouts because of map and team sizes.
Its gonna be enough of a challenge to figure out which weapons to give to which aircraft. and lets be honest, if you need 22 amraams, you’re doing something wrong
Well basically, the Meteor could mounted on 4 hardpoint, having one centered fuel tank, and 4 more MICA (EM/IR)
But apart that, we still can see the 10Mica loadout being a bit OP,… as METEOR missiles range at low altitude is shorter, and that you can hide behind a hill in game.
So it wouldn’t surprise me that people tends to use a 2 Meteor and maximum of MICA’S
You cannot mount 4 Meteor and 4 Mica on the same airframe at the same time.
It’s either 4 Meteor and 2 Mica or 2 Meteor and 6 MICA.
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Well basiaclly, you have 4 Meteor, 2 under belly + 2 under inner pylon of wings.
- 4 mica → 2 on wing tip and 2 on farther wing pylon.
That’s possible. Even more adding the Fuel tank in the middle.
Nothing blocks any of those mounts,… and with 9.5 tons of payload capacity, Rafale is far capable of doing such mount.
can missile rails be mounted there though?
The issue is not weight, it’s size.
If you place the 2 meteor on the under pilon on the wing, you cannot place Mica on the pilon next to them due to size.
You can find pictures with it but if there is a meteor on the pilon, but you can’t shoot the Mica next to it.
So we’ve got again the 4 Meteor+2 Mica or the 2 Meteor + 6 MICA
@Cpt_Bel_V
Physically four Meteor and four MICA do fit on one airframe (ONLY F.4 uses SP3 pylon in French service), but as off now there is a technical restriction that doesn’t allow such a loadout.
So you have to choose between two Meteor + six MICA or four Meteor + two MICA.
Mounting missiles on the belly is not possible either, the belly is only used for SCALP, AM39, AASM-1000, GBU-24, AREOS pod and fuel tanks.
is that just what its used for right now or does the belly use a different mounting system and its physically impossible to mount it?
like on the EF they dont use the middle and inner wing pylons for missiles but it is technically possible, just needs to be officially cleared for carriage
There is nothing available atm that even indicates that it is possible to mount and use missiles on said stations iirc.
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Max mica missiles
4 MICA + 2 Meteor + 6 AASM + Fuel tanks
4 MICA +4 Meteor picture (in place of AASM’s from previous pic.)
This shows also that heavy weapons can be loaded on the external Fuel Tank stores.
Therefore no limitation for Meteor which is lighter than Harpoon (221kg > 185kg for meteor)
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I don’t think the weight is the limitation. AFAIK its the wiring thats an issue. Particularly for that MICA graphic i recall seeing a discussion on that which mentions the pylons are not wired.
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First picture; Made up and guesstimated, not based on any available credential informations (doesn’t even clarify airframe or standard).
Second picture; First of all, this is a testbed (with dummy Meteors) and second it confirms what I said before and mentioned in the OP. Its using the SP3 pylon in order to use two additional MICA, nothing more and nothing less. No idea why you bring it up.
Third picture; same as the first picture
Fourth picture; also made up and based on guesstimates, its from Janes 1998.
Janes is an unreliable source and disagrees with official material provided by Dassault.
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ASRAAM lmao
that list is pure bs
it looks to be intentionally misleading though by making it look like a photocopy of a manual with the low quality text and just overall look
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Bu hasn’t F4 Standard fixed this issue as MICAs are super close to wing tips?
Can someone provide me with an image of Rafale with 4 meteors please?
surprisingly small amount of pictures with 4 meteors. its always just 2 on the fuselage
