The F-104S/TAF is currently at 11.3 BR. The Starfighter’s main quirk is that is has a huge engine with amazing acceleration, even at mach 1. The only thing you do as a Starfighter is go fast and go straight, which works well in lower BRs. At 11.3, you share BRs with many jets that can easily keep up with you, making your ONE advantage completely obsolete. This is especially appearent after the flightmodel update, which has made the F-104 (all versions) turn even worse than before, and bleeds a lot more speed when it turns. Here are a few comparisons:
Mig-23ML, 11.3 BR. It has better armaments with all aspect missiles (R-60M/MK) as well as a good radar paired with good radar missiles (R-23R). This wouldn’t be such a big point if the F-104S also had a good radar, as the Aim-7Es aren’t that bad for it’s BR. The problem lies with the F-104S’ atrocious radar, that can’t hold a radar lock for long enough to hit it’s target, not that you would want to bring the Aim-7E’s anyways since you have to give up your gun to equip them. Armament aside, the Mig-23 can easily outmanuever AND catch up to you, there is literally nothing an F-104S can do to win a fight against a Mig-23ML because it simply outperforms in every aspect.
Mig-21Bis also has the benefit of having much better manueverability, though it’s acceleration doesn’t quite compare against the Mig-23 nor the F-104S, it can still put up a chase. It also gets 6 all aspect missiles.
F-4E, also outmanuevers the F-104S, has high top speed but poor acceleration due to being quite heavy. Allthough lacking a radar with look-down capability, it is still a lot better than the one on the F-104. You can also load it with 4 Aim-9Js (the same as on the F-104S), and 4 Aim-7E2s which are just a bit better than the Aim-7Es, 8 missiles in total. Going forward, i won’t mention how the F-104S can’t equip it’s gun together with radar missiles.
JA37C, amazing dogfighter that gets as many missiles as the F-104S does, but gets swedish Skyflash missiles that are more resilient against chaff, paired with a better radar. It’s engine is much more powerful and i find myself getting chased down by these quite often.
Bear in mind that these comparisons are made with the stats that are available on War Thunder, and that these comparisons are made from an F-104S player’s point of view. I don’t have on-hands experience with flying any of the planes i made comparisons with.
With all of these comparisons in mind, also take into consideration that this plane mostly flies against 12.0 and 12.3 aircraft that have vastly superior performance, as these BRs have become black hole BRs from both premiums and a certain event vehicle.
What are your thoughts, should the F-104S go down in BR, or should it be buffed to be able to keep up with the other planes? Do you agree or disagree with something i’ve written, or perhaps there is something you would like to add?