Before we start I wanted to focus a bit on the competitiveness of US top tier plane CAS which probably can be considered one of the worst in the game after this update.
I made a short tier list with each country best planes to show what i personally think the current meta is:
Spoiler
1#
F-16I (Israel F-16 which has x8 SPICE-250 + x2 1000/2000 - cost very little SP - all IR guided, much better damage than AGM-65, also has MAW)
Su-30SM2 (Still WIP - will get better engines and radar, has 6x KH-38MT + 1x GPS/TV bomb)
Su-30MKK (Same as Su-30SM, Japans new best CAS is Russian best CAS plane in the past)
2#
Rafale M (Just a Rafale with new radar, armed with 6x ASM-250)
F-15I (Another Israel upgrade over US - can carry 6x IR Spice-2000 with cheap SP spawn or 6x AGM-65D + 4x Spice, at least you’re not limited to only SDB)
3#
EF-2000 (Questionable CAS, but now has a new radar, very good anti heli and atleast its loadout of Brimstones and LJDAM’s is cheap on SP unlike AGM-65)
4#
F-16AM (Sweden F-16 - though it has 6x AGM-65D but it also carries 2x AGM-119 instead of GBU-24, also has MAW)
J-11B (Expensive spawn and only has 4x TV Kh-29 + 2 L-GPS bombs, at least missiles are fast and deadly)
F-15E (Expensive spawn, carries only 6x AGM-65D with underwhelming HEAT warhead + only GPS bombs
F-18E (Very unlikely that its a better than F-15E - has 6x AGM-65H that do some damage at least but the cheaper loadout is still very bad - 10x LJDAMS and its the worst plane platform among all listed above, very heavy and underpowered)
Now lets talk about AGM-154C - its basically a IR glide bomb, in game it will be pretty much like SPICE-1000. It should be cheap to spawn so US planes wont cost over 900 do be at least somewhat useful.
There is also a better option like GBU-53/B, its a HEAT glide bomb but very little info is available about it + F-15E can carry 28x of them so it has to be limited, definitely would like to see it on F-16 and F-18.
AGM-154C Platforms:
F-18's
Both F-18E and C can carry 4x in total, but F-18E still has 2 more free hardpoints
Gripen C had the ability to carry a lot more ordinance but it doesn’t and is even missing the ability to put ordinance on the centerline pylon so we can only hope and as of now the gripen E is not on the public test server :(((
Yeah, we’ll see, if nothing else, it should get access to Brimstones and the ability to run ARH alongside A2G will be a big buff, but thats a matter for another thread
more real than kh38mt, and plus its easier to counter, sure if it gets in range to drop the bomblets its going to be very strong but its slow and easy to intercept before that.
I don’t call it better, its just much more consistent plane considering it costs good 200-300 sp less than rafale and su-30 while having a lot to offer.
It’s a good CAS jet don’t get me wrong, but it is much more defensive than those other 2 aircraft, and weaponry much slower meaning you have to play it more methodically and slower unless you have a mountain map.
In essence, the Sufa can match the other jets when given good cover, but a Su-30 can get a 6x multikill regardless of map, F-16I cannot
