The F-16D is currently in a really good spot. Adding the new missile would increase its BR to 13.7 or maybe 14.0 (depending on the in-game performance of the I-Derby ER). At that BR, it would struggle with its relatively bad radar. It would become a relatively hard to play plane that would have to fight planes with much better radar, flight performance, and more missiles.
What Gaijin is doing by neglecting both (and especially) Israel and the US by not adding an F-15I/E “Late” (W/APG-82(V)1 in the israeli case, and the F-15E RMP in the US’) is simply a demonstration of how they just wanted to add Israel for their Merkavas, and not because they care about the tree’s health at all.
Israel has been lacking a top tier contender for at least one year. That must change sooner rather than later, as Israel should technologically be among the best at this last stages of top tier air anyway (unless Gaijin decides to play them dirty).
But back on topic: yes, they should be getting the I-Derby at least to ramp their planes up a bit in the 13.3 hell.
New derby only features very marginal improvements so it’s very unlikely it’ll move up even to 13.7… It would help against the Su30 horde though
But adding the I-Derby ER to the F-16D doesn’t fix that issue. They should add new things to the tree instead of giving planes missiles that would push it into a BR bracket where it isn’t going to be competitive.
I mean, ARH F-16s are quite competitive within the 13.3-13.7 bracket, if they get a marginally better Derby, it’ll make them worth giving a shot there, as now the meta is quite settled with the Su-30s horde w/R-77s and PL-12s.
16D being at the same br as the MKK doesn’t make much sense and it can’t possibly move down so the ER would help level the playing field
That the Su-30MKK is unbalanced is very obvious. And the F-16D is good for its BR. It makes it unique compared to other F-16C or similar variants in that it has worse missiles but a lower BR. Giving it a higher BR would make it just like the others. I’m not too well informed on the I-Derby ER, but can’t the F-16C Barak 2 carry it? Or is there any difference that would make it incompatible? Because that would make the plane more unique and wouldn’t need to change its BR.
In theory yes, however it was only mounted on the 16D
On the contrary, it’d be the most unique variant, featuring a dual pulse missile at the lowest BR. As it currently stands, it is just a worse-off 16C and its lower BR never really makes a difference as it is always dragged into the 13.3 matchmaker black-hole created by the premium su30s
I doubt it’d go up to 13.7 even with Derby ER though
But the F-16D is statistically doing great. It has a good global K/D of 1.13. The F-16C Barak II has a 0.99 K/D, and I regularly play the F-16D and do fine. My stats in it aren’t great, but they are affected by the IR and early ARH meta, where I wasn’t really good. It doesn’t need a buff. The Su-30s should move up to 13.7; that would make it a bit better. Giving it to the F-16C Barak II would make it better but not justify a BR increase. If I saw the statistics of the other thread correctly, the I-Derby ER should have twice the range of the Derby. So it would definitely increase the F-16D BR to 13.7.
For a static launch yes, for an airborne launch though, I’m not too sure
In game it has functionally identical range though and the dual-pulse feature is just a gimmick
It has a bit more energy, according to the data mines. It also has a stronger sustainer, so it should have more range.
It has only about 10% more thrust
3 good options here imo.
1: Add the F-16C and F-16D Block 30 Barak Is, give them identical kits to the Barak IIs but with the I-Derby Series.
2: Add the F-16C and F-16D Block 30 Barak Is, give them identical kits to the Barak IIs but without the I-Derby Series, adding them to the Barak IIs already ingame.
3: Add the modernized Barak 2020 F-16s, either Barak I or Barak II with the I-Derby ER (my preferred option, means the earlier Block 30s can be added without any ARH missiles before the Barak IIs, nice unique option)
They should add it to the f15i which is Israel’s best air craft
The thing is, it never used it
Block 30s would be at a higher BR than the block 40s as they are the F16 models with the best dogfight characteristics
no they said they were working on the mechanics of dual pulse missiles and didnt plan to add them right now
no it wont
So, why does the SPYDER have the I-Derby ER with dual pulse modeled on the dev server?

its not fully working on dev yet, its still being worked on
That’s if they have the same loadout ofc, and it has a lower payload limit. There’s also some things I’m unsure of, being the initial RWR model used. Lots of stuff to dive into that I hope to get to someday. Anyway as for the FM, yes it’s better, and the best among serial production F-16s, but it’s not an extreme difference to even warrant a separate BR on its own, still worth keeping in mind regardless. And you’re probably already aware but D 30 also has 2 additional spine mounted countermeasure dispensers compared to the D 40