True, I do hope we get ECM soon as we see more IRCM added and ARMs coming this year. Good time to expand electronic warfare, especially before 5th gens come.
As for the BR increase, if the ASA had stayed at 12.0 but had 9L/i-1 I think it honestly would’ve been fine. 11.7 is necessary rn due to the regular 9Ls, but putting it as an equal to the Mirage F1 in BR would make sense with IRCCM missiles. Really only reason 12.0 suffers so much is because of the massive compression from 12.0-14.3, if they are able to separate such vehicles a bit better then 12.0 is a great bridge between early look-down SARH aircraft and the IRCCM ARH meta at the top. You would get vehicles like the Mirage F1, F-104S ASA, and Bison building that bridge with older 3rd gen airframes but R-73/Magic 2/Aim-9L/i
Right now it’s basically you go from non-IRCCM supersonics and a small handful of IRCCM subsonics and then launched straight into 4th gens with R-73 and 9M and very good radars with late SARH and early Fox-3 that just serves to make uptiers even more brutal than normal
nobody mentions the f104s speed because speed is obsolete in 2026 at this br, any uptier plane or missile will catch you, I constantly get matched against F18’s
The F-104S being the 3rd or 4th fastest plane below 12.7 is quite notable and makes it significantly better than any 10.7 (except the J-7D), and so much better than the F-104Gs.
I’m waiting for the day when Snail remembers the long-forgotten F-104 in its own game, but I’m starting to doubt more and more whether that day will ever come…
Not only is their BR too high relative to their combat capabilities, but they also lack the full capabilities they had in reality. Somehow, the F-8E at BR 10.7 has EEGS/IRST in the game, but the “pencils” don’t have it, and there’s still no sign of the iconic wing-tip fuel tanks, which would be very helpful in simulation mode.
Edit: @Normandy_Corsair
Exactly—it’s a mistake on Gaijin’s part to even take this into account when determining a vehicle’s BR; it doesn’t make sense, since bombing bases has such a negligible impact on the final outcome of a battle.
what’s insane to me is they recently updated the models of the starfighters. Meaning they haven’t forgot about it. They can see their performance and are choosing to do nothing about it
You have just only scratched the surface of Italy’s military power.
Just wait until we get F-104S-ASA/M at 13.0 with AIM-9L/i-1, Aspide Mk.2, and such powerful ECM not even the most modern AESA radar can even know it is on earth
Don’t forget, this Dev team doesnt care about “fair”. Italy isnt a money making country regarding ARB for the company (hence the lack-luster premium options).
They don’t care to re-work the ASA because few people play it.
What they DO care about: OP premiums in countries with good end goal aircraft.
China for example has 2 of the most OP premiums ever added to game, all relating to artificially lowered BR’s to incentivize players into buying them: The J-7D at 10.7 (should be at least 11.0 or even 11.3 to compliment the J-7E) and the worst offender (IMO) The Su-30MKK at 13.3… that thing has needed to be 13.7 since the moment of it’s release but since it’s a cash cow they will never increase it’s br.
Same exact reason in the other direction why they wont bother changing the ASA, they do not care about it.
This is a company in the end of the day, they’re goal is not to supply us with a fair environment, it is to earn shareholders lots of money.
Viggens and Floggers will catch you pretty easily under most circumstances, even the Mig-21 Bis can keep pace for a while. Yes speed helps but when the speed race turns into a fight all of those other fast vehicles can then turn decently well (Mig-21) or even amazingly (Mig-23 and Viggen). Drakens can also usually pace you at any sort of altitude. Speed alone can be a virtue, but being the “3rd or 4th fastest” at its BR while having none of the redeeming factors of those other jets (awful radar, rear aspect only fox 2, terrible speed bleed and extremely poor turn rate) means it is not strong enough a virtue to lean on.
I have hundreds of battles in starfighter variants, I know them very thoroughly. You only perform when you capitalise on poor enemy decisions/lack of awareness and on lucky opportunism. Someone who knows you are there will be able to at the minimum evade all your attacks, and more than likely counter you.
The worst thing about the F104S is its radar, in the game it can only lock on a target at a distance of 4 km, which makes the AIM7E useless, they can’t even turn to the target, I remember how the B52 easily dodged it. Although its NASAR R21 radar can capture a target at a distance of up to 16 km in ideal conditions, and 10 km in practice. I regretted buying this premium F104S TAF to grind the Italian tech tree… It’s very painful to play against the F4, which has stronger aim9L and aim7F, as well as against the Soviet R60M and R24R, all of these missiles are much better than the aim9B.
It can lock from further, it’s only ACM mode that is limited to 4km, but given the SRC mode is locked to a 90x10 scan zone its very slow to update and acquire targets, not to mention much of the stuff it fights has PD or MTI radars.
Compare it to the F-4E at the same BR the F-104S TAF is:
near the same top speed
FAR less agile
same radar missiles
less radar missiles
less total missiles
worse radar
cannot carry a gun and radar missiles at the same time
Use search mode and lock from there, it is decent at BVR I have been deleting foxbats and phantom players. Climb at Mach 1 into open sky, stay around Mach 1 with radar in SRC mode, 37km. Watch targets, find someone in range (about 17km) and lock them. Lead appropriately and fire your sparrow around 10km. As soon as it is off the rail make evasive maneuvers and drop chaff sparingly while keeping radar lock. I have never had as many F-104S kills as the last 2 days, dropping 2-5 kill games regularly. After the sparrow buffs it is a good missile jouster, just stay alert and mind the F-4S and Mirage F1s