I really struggle to get any logical reason why the Hunter F6 should be anywhere near 9.7 in Air Rb:
No rwr
No afterburner
No radar (beyond 1km lmaoo)
No CMs
SRAAMs self-destruct after 3 seconds meaning they are only good at catching enemies within 1 km, that are not paying attention, also they will much rather go for flares or enemy missile launch than the enemy
Not supersonic and usually much slower than the planes it faces
Not extremely agile at least
It just doesnt compete at 9.7 or even worse facing J7Ds, Mig21, A10s etc
their range is more than doubled and they are far more reliable.
So in that regard, be patient.
As for the rest. Its a compression issue mostly, but Hunter F6 (with the new and improved SRAAMs) compared directly to the 2x 9.3 Hunters with mk207 engines and Aim-9Es (FGA9 and F58) makes sense with both better missiles and twice as many (let alone the Belgium F6 with the 203 engine and only 9Bs) , but 0.3 lower than the SQV Hunter F58 with RWR and CMs. Its placement is okay… Though 8.0-10.0 is a compressed mess and facing the all-aspect slingers is an issue (though, you can use rockets as flares)
But to break down the rest
Not that big of an issue for the BR. Nothing with radar to worry about all that much and what there is defeatable through ground clutter or turning.
Its a subsonic jet… This is fine, a lot of aircraft are subsonic for 9.7
Its not a radar, its a rangefinder, useless in RB, but handy in SB. Again, lots dont have radar at that BR. Only an issue in SB, but in RB you have markers to find everything.
Plenty at 9.7 is subsonic and its not until 11.0+ that supersonic really becomes the norm. Its high subsonic which is fine for the BR.
Keep your speed up. Going low and slow is a death sentence.
Everything struggles in an uptier, but it is also a messy BR, but just remember, as much as you struggle fighting them. Imagine how a F-86 or Mig-15 would struggle against you. Especially with the buffs due soon
Equip rockets on the free pylons and fire them off like you would a flare. its tricky, but works against most IR missiles of that BR. The missiles go for the rocket motor.
Likely has been that combined with compression issues with the Old-RAAMs, but with the New-RAAMs… It might be correctly BRed for the first time in years
I dont struggle I spaded it just now with around 2 kd. I just find it horribly placed in terms of BR.
SRAAM buff is nice to hear, I won’t be touching it again, so I guess someone else will need to profit from those.
And while I appreciate your effort, there is no point in disassembling those points of all the things it doesn’t have, as they are meant to be taken together. Sure you can say “many aircraft of that br are subsonic” taken alone it has little value, but these points are in most cases supplanted by some strength, in the case of the Hunter however they are not.
And honestly you approached it like advice is needed - I guess fine for some strater players but some of this advice is not really good “Go fast” doesn’t work really when most planes you will face are faster, use rockets as makeshift CMs also, I wouldn’t advise for players of this aircraft in paricular as the gains from it are not on par with the performance hit (though that I would leave up to personal preference). RWR would very well be a good bonus as there are certainly radar-capable aircraft like the mig21s and they can easily lock you while in clouds so yes, players should keep these in mind too etc etc
Not to mention that at the same BR there are planes that have all from that list.
In terms of uptiers I disagree that most aircraft struggle as much. Ive been playing the Jaguar previously and its miles better and it gets the same uptiers, just as an example
That’s because it is a legacy BR. The hunter and its missiles were added before countermeasures were and it would slaughter the unprepared and the slow. Now it’s a struggle bus.
Another British plane with a “funny” BR is the venom.
Yeah, if it makes it to live (im a Cynic these days, been screwed too many times by something looking good on the dev server, only to not make it to live)
But if it does, I think the GR1 and F6 are now both correctly BRed at least with the current compression. (would be nice if things like the F-5 and J35XS werent visible to them, but oh well)
If nothing else. Ive tenatively removed both from my BR change list. (at least for ARB/ASB)
It’s not at all bad at 9.7, SRAAMs are basically free kills as long as you don’t launch them stupidly. But I mean I’d like to see it lose the SRAAMs which were only experimental and drop in BR.
Like it’s a bizarre inconsistency to have this experimental missile that causes such a balancing issue, then to deny so many aircraft their primary historical weapons (AIM-9L or R-13M or AIM-26) for “balancing reasons”
In their current live state, they bug out all the time.
The buffed version coming this major. Fixes a lot of that.
“Dont launch them stupidly” really isnt helpful when they somersault through the air when fired at a target that happens to closer than 450m or slightly off-boresight or self destruct if the target is further than about 800m
Also they instantly go for flares or rockets no matter what. So only a “free kill” vs flareless. Unfortunately, you are almost always uptiered at 9.7, so thats rather rare.
Unlike the KH-38MT, it was actually fired and there is plenty of documentation for it. Its an interesting and iconic missile that makes the Hunter F6 more interesting than just being guns only at 9.0. Likewise for the Harrier Gr1.
Im not really sure “balancing reasons” really applies much to prototype missiles. Though SRAAMs are missing their all-aspect
Perhaps. Though there is the Dutch F6 and the Hunter F58 (export F6) and Hunter FGA9 (F6 repurposed for ground attack with a few minor upgrades) are essentially the same airframe. So its not the only representation of the airframe.
The SRAAM was very good, but then a combo them dragging their feet for bug fixes, compression and legacy BRs have caused it to suffer unncessarily for the past few years. With the coming changes, SRAAMs might be a really fun weapon system again.
I do hope to see more Hunters within the British TT at somepoint, but I dont think a TT version of the FGA9 is all that necessary. Would quite like the Chilean, Singaporean or Omani Hunters at some point
The problem with them (before this upcoming patch) is that you’re a slow jet with a missile that works only within 1KM. You see the problem there? Ayit works because you’re slow but your missile works upwards of 4KM+ out. The patch is going to help alleviate some issues that come from being slow.
I see a 1000 post demanding it, but without CMs, its impossible to justify it being the same BR as the Hunter F58 and its already 0.3 higher than the Aim-9E Hunters (F58 and FGA9)