The Sea Harrier FA.2 is at 13.0 and can carry a max of 4 AMRAAMS.
It does not have enough missiles to make up for its poor flight performance (only poor in game IRL is a different story) The Harrier has terrible ITR and STR due to 1 gaijin not modeling the thrust and 2 Gaijin not modeling VIFF.
How is the FA.2 supposed to compete with anything at 13.0 and above when it has 0 means of contending and fighting back against say the F-18.
Gaijin should model the Harrier correctly otherwise they should just be moved down in BR. Nothing is modeled correctly not even the Flaps or VIFF.
What to Fix:
Make VIFF actually work so you can pull hard defensive turns, VIFFing with 60 degree nozzle angle at .6 Mach with near a full combat load will generate 19 degrees a second in turn rate.
In game the plane will barely pull 16 in this configuration with WEP power yet it should do it with just 100%.
Make the flaps function correctly the Flaps had a very low effect on drag and could be used to increase instantaneous G by .5 at 400 knots (Further increasing ITR to around 22 degrees a second at .6 Mach)
They currently produce too much drag to even be useful yet IRL they caused almost 0 change in speed.
STR with 15-20 degrees nozzle was able to sustain 14 degrees a second in turn rate with a combat load and only 100% throttle, this is still not achievable.
Lastly is mouse aim AOA for those who enjoy air RB. The virtual instructor limits the Harriers AOA to 16 degrees I just suggest they raise it to its IRL maneuvering tone of around 20 degrees AOA (just like as seen on the Sea Harriers HUD)
The Sea Harrier is Britain’s primary fighter from 10.7-13.0 there are many Harriers in many tech trees that could benefit greatly from this.
VIFF
Harrier VIFF Turn rate to low // Gaijin.net // Issues
STR
First Gen Harrier STR still too low after Dev Buff // Gaijin.net // Issues
AOA
Harrier 1 Mouse Aim AOA limit // Gaijin.net // Issues
6 Likes
The standard of what a 13.0 should be.
I can agree with that from a missile standpoint “AMRAAM”
However artificially gimping the absolute hell out of an airframe simply for no other reason then what I assume is just gaijin not wanting to fix it, makes the FA.2 useless beyond shooting 4 AMRAAM then running away.
If they just change it and buff it so it can do what I have proven its capable of then it could actually still go in and compete. Would make it a much more enjoyable aircraft.
1 Like
Changes aren’t artificial, and BRs are set based on the existing capabilities of the vehicle.
Everything about the Harriers in war thunder is artificial they have been modeled off of nothing more than Gaijins estimates so far.
They where given the E-M diagram and it still fails to hold up to its standard.
There is also no modeling of VIFF or its effect on pitch rate or turn rate to any meaningful degree.
3 Likes
Just about everything about the harriers flight model is wrong including thrust and generated heat
6 Likes
Yeah I have a source about how effective the Gr.3’s CM where against an AIM9L type threat from the rear and it could be defeated very easily.
I do have to give some props to Gaijin as they generally are fairly close as far as flight models go, but with the Harriers they are just widely off the money.
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Glad you agree.
Wrong isn’t artificial though.
When I say artificial I mean more on the lines that Gaijin has seen what’s wrong and instead of saying ok well fix it when we can they just come up with a lie and pretend there is no issue.
I wouldn’t even be frustrated if they just said ok it’ll get changed when we have time.
it would be lower if it didnt have spaamraams. its also ok enough at 13.0 all things given
Yeah I can just foresee the endless F-18 horde coming. It will not be a fun plane to fly when that happens.
Not because its a worse plane IRL its just missing all the features that made it cool in the first place.
Remember to VIFF. If they use their cobra button to try and get nose on they will just crash
doesn’t work, as you are restricted to 16 degrees AOA AND VIFF has 0 effect on the pitch rate. So you cant angle off them enough.
They will get a guns solution or an IR solution long before they loss enough speed to fall. (An IRCCM missile is sure death)
Do you understand, SHar FA.2 is WORST 13.0BR plane if we consider ‘advanced ARH’ carriers only.
And has even worse flight characteristics compared to AV-8B+?
(FYI, I am double scared about buying and spading it. I am sure stock FA.2 of mine will be easy prey to everyone. including those non-ARH carrying 4th-gen planes in 13.0)
We are well aware that 4x AIM-120B is a standard for 13.0 ARH slingers.
But maybe, no 4th-gen will struggle to fight against Sea Harrier FA.2.
Especially, in the current situation of underperforming FM.
We are not talking about ‘buff it down to 12.7 and let us frag those napalming MiG-23’
1 Like
Lol put it at 12.7 and give gaijin a reason to give it its IRL performance to go back up.
To be fair though I don’t see 4 AMRAAMs really changing a 12.0 match that much. No one plays the Sea Harriers except very few.
Fix (or atleast make its flight performance better), and decompressing the BRs is the best solution.
It will always be the worst early AMRAAM slinger unless it has a different BR than the rest.
Buff it to its IRL specs and that will quickly change. It would likely be the best early AMRAAM slinger.
Easily the only thing the F-4 has on the Harrier is speed.
The Harriers initial climb rate up to 30,000 feet is actually faster than an F-4.
If the F-4 got close to a Harrier its finished.
I highly doubt it would be better than the Tornado F.3 late, or F-4F ICE.
And unless it gets a lower BR, wouldn’t the Av-8b be better?