Yeah I had heard that the F14 technically could but did they ever actually try or was the F14 phased out but then?
There was some government document I saw a while ago saying it would get the capability in a software update. It did get that software update. I can’t link it because the doc didn’t say unclassified sorry.
The F-14D was proposed to have further upgrades but they were canceled. My best guess was the 9M and the 9X both were updated to use the same interface software to lower engineering drift between them and having the 9M software just meant the 9X came along with it.
Either that or a “things went hot” situation where they needed to field F-14’s and stores only had 9X’s.
That would require forethought… so I’m leaning on the first which is the “lazy costcutting” story.
4 Likes
Real shame, could’ve made the most silly tomcat oh well, I’ll continue hoping we’ll get the F14D eventually
1 Like
all for tomcat love but i don’t think tomcats have any place in the current state of the game lol, the F-14A and F-14B are useless and dare i say, garbage, at their current battle ratings with their current loadouts.
the only good tomcat is the F-14 IRIAF, and even that is pretty useless outside of its fakour loadout.
The f15c is better in every way except 2 aim120 extra on the hornet and its 13.7.
2 Likes
Agreed. The F18C (All nations) should be 13.7. The F18E should take their place at 14.0. This is just my opinion, but it would help with their insane mediocrity.
The problem now is that the F-18E (US) has 120D’s which are a bit better at tracking due to the AESA uplink. It should stay at 14.3. If anything AESA should all be bumped up with a decompression because AESA is that much of a game changer.
If this were the pre giving the F-18E’s the better missiles I would agree. But AESA needs to sit in AESA BR land now that it has missiles that can use it.
1 Like
Yeah that’s a fair point. The problem is that the F18E/F18C (Late) are literally just shark bait tbh in toptier. It will lose every day of the week against the Rafale, EFT, SU30SM2, etc. It’s in a rough spot right now. I think it wouldn’t be game breaking at 14.0 and 13.7 respectively.
I say this, while premium SU30s are wreaking havoc on the 13.3 BR. So you never actually know what Gajin will do. Something needs to change with the F18s. It’s so bad.
F-18E is fine at 14.3 from my experience.
We just need better decompression.
Moving stuff down will not help with that
All 14.0 F18’s should be 13.3 - the same BR as the flankers and moved up in BR if the flankers ever get moved. I just played a game to remind myself how bad it is coming straight off the back of playing f15 its a non contest. Its not 14.0 or 13.7 worthy. Even the 120s are bad as they are being launched at such a slow speed.
as i always like to say, the F/A-18 is an attacker masquerading as a fighter while being good at neither job
1 Like
yeah uh, let’s not do that
2 Likes
I wonder if one version in particular would still manage a sub 1 KD while the worse version might go above that lol
1 Like