Why, when I got you waiting for me on the forums?
:D
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Hey man, PMs are open
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A friend of mine wrote that the Gripen is clearly superior to the Hornet in DACT missions. It is very likely that Hornet pilots do not exceed 7.5g, which is the electronic limit. But I don’t know. If they were Swiss F-18s, they don’t have a limit and are therefore fully 9G aircraft. ( They also have the more powerful General Electric engines).
I think the sustained turn of about 19 st/sec you quoted is for 9G, but in reality the Navy is practically under 9g, they have a limit of 7.5g.
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The F-18 can use its nose AoA maneuvers up to about 350 knots, so it’s usable for dogfighting, and it was practically happening.
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hroughout my career I flew against F-16s many times and in my opinion, it was the hardest of the 4th generation fighters to beat. It was small, had a lot of thrust, and a very impressive 9G turn. The F-16 had a turn rate advantage and much better thrust to weight when compared to the F/A-18C. The F/A-18C had a better turn radius and could fly at a higher angle of attack (AOA) than the F-16. The best way to fight an F-16 is in a 1 circle fight, usually in the vertical. Getting the Hornet’s nose on first to try and get an early shot, whether with a missile or the gun. The key would be to get the F-16 reacting to the Hornet, bleeding energy, and getting slow. At slow airspeeds, the F/A-18’s AOA advantage meant I could point my nose easily and get a shot.
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I never said it cannot perform ACM/BFM.
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It shows the F-18’s advantage in maneuverability - insane AoA maneuverability. Along with aim-9X and JHMCS, a very powerful combination.
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at slow speed it will not keep up with the F-16 in a prolonged/sustained dogfights.
There is no thrust for it nor there aerodynamics. It has no stamina.
It weighs as much as Mig29SMT and has much less thrust than it.
No need to maneuver for long, just shoot the AIM-9X F-16 in the face as fast as possible.
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True, that is tactic I have read, they want to end the fight as soon as possible
Information about JHMCS symbology for F/A-18 series aircraft, taken from public document.
Seems to be accurate compared to the real one.
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Hornet would dominate almost anything in a 1v1. If you get slow with a hornet you are in a lot of trouble as that thing can point its nose easily at low speed. Unfortunately that is not what the meta is which is stay fast, which is something the hornet is not good at.
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It is testing conducted by our member @RideR2 You can find it here
The original F/A-18A was limited to 7.5G, I believe the C models and later were unrestricted up to 9G’s as the airframes were found to have a much more extensive lifespan than they had previously thought or something. Don’t quote me on that, I’d have to dig into it again to remember exactly what was going on with that. It’s not like the F-15 which was limited in G’s due to concerns pilots would accidentally exceed the G limit too easily since the F/A-18 had a proper FBW.
Let’s not forget that the sustained turn rate is almost on par with the F-16 and superior to the F-15 in many regards. People seem to think the low static thrust to weight is a bad thing, the poor acceleration comes mostly from the low speed angle and higher drag from the high-lift devices.
Again, it can do perfectly fine against any of its’ adversaries in sustained turn rate as well.
I disagree, it will be able to maintain a high subsonic mach number. Supersonic speeds are where it really suffers. You can see in the public data the acceleration really only slows down at high subsonic speeds… below which it is superior than even the Gripen and that thing does fantastic in-game currently… the Gripens’ advantage is the transonic and supersonic regions where the delta design excels though hence supercruising.
Although, yes… it will most certainly dominate anything in a 1v1 when it is added to the game. At least, it should… but we saw how Gaijin has been modeling things as of late. Must be a new FM dev or something imo.
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The Hornet C ( and Super Hornet) is limited to the same weight as the A version, 7.5g. The Navy has it that way. The airframe can take more, but in terms of operational economy the g limit is electronically set. It can be turned off for a very limited time by the pilot. But it doesn’t happen because the pilot has to explain why he overloaded the aircraft by more than 7.5g. If he didn’t have a good reason, like a collision with the ground, he can be penalized for it. The aircraft has to be checked and the airframe endurance is reduced. The Navy doesn’t like to see that.
The sustained maneuvering of the Hornet is usually not good at all altitudes compared to the F-15 and F-16. If these two aircraft maintain speed the Hornet will be at a disadvantage unless it can make quick decisions and pull the fight down to lower speeds/high AoA. There it has a great chance of beating the F-16 and a slightly lesser chance of beating the F-15 ( the F-15 has better high AoA maneuverability than the F-16).
But it’s up to the pilots, the Hornet can win even in sustained maneuvering if the F-15/F-16 pilots are worse or make bad decisions. DACT is highly dynamic and the pilot has to make the right decision in a split second.
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The F-18C is also slower than both the F-8E Crusader and the F4E Phantom II (much slower).
F-18C is over 130 km/h faster than the F-8E at sea level…F-8E is literally the slowest afterburning jet, as far as I know.
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The F8 was notoriously fast my friend you are thinking of the Demon.
The F8E Crusaders top speed is 1,227 mph, 1,974 km/h) at 36,000 ft.
The F-18C’s top speed is 1,190 mph, 1,915 km/h) at 40,000 ft.
The F-18 is slower than the Crusader even flying 4,000 feet higher.
We have the acceleration for both, we can test. I know already the F-8 is certainly going to lose in regards to acceleration right off the bat… that’s obvious.
These limits are completely ignored in war thunder, (see the F-15, MiG-29, F-16, Gripen, ETC) …and have no negative effect on the performance in-game. It just expands the envelope into areas where it will excel even further. A low-fuel Hornet will simply dominate an F-15 in-game and the F-16 will only give it a challenge in a low altitude and high speed sustained turn. The F-18’s ability to tighten down or get position before they end up that low will be all he needs to dominate the F-16 even in sustained turn engagements. It will be similar to how the Mirage 2000 fights the MiG-29 currently.
We have to understand that this is War Thunder. The pilots can handle extreme G forces and we fly to fuel levels far below bingo regularly. The Hornet will be an absolute monster in a 1v1.
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The acceleration of the F8E was legendary in the Vietnam war. .
I do not doubt the F-18C is better in acceleration, but the point is the Crusader and the F-18C are comparable in acceleration and speed performance. Not comparing it to the Gripen or any other 12.7 fighters like you been trying to do lol.
It cannot even outrun a phantom. It will get ran down at any altitude by it.
MiG-17F wants to have a word
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F-18 will rip at 10-11G’s at low weighs, decreasing with weight.
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