The Gripen A is really good as knife fighter. Sure, your only radar missile is the dogfight Skyflash but you have the avionics to make up for it - a good RWR and a practically unlimited amount of countermeasures enables you to actually get into the close range fight.
Six AIM-9Ms can be quite dangerous on the second-best flight model in the game.
I absolutely love the Grippen. It is definitely the greatest 1v1 short range fighter right now, and is my personal favourite to do them in. However, in BVR and Pubs it is nothing compared to the F-15Es or Su-30 missile spam. What I do in the Grippen is hug low to the ground and go far left and then cut back in towards the map and eliminate them from behind.
So for Sinai, I go across the water and turn back in where the ground troops are spawned.
Denmark I go far left and cut back in where the ground troops are.
Afghanistan I fly into the mountains, hugging the mountains until I am near their bases.
Rocky Pillars I go left until I reach their ground troops and I side shot in that little valley.
That’s basically the only way to play the Grippen in Pubs, because no one will dogfight you (sorry, 90% of people won’t dogfight you, you can settle down, “actually I always dogfight” people). They are hurling AIM 120s, MICAs, and R-77s at you 90% of the time or are flying back to base. Your best bet is to get them when they’re vulnerable and fly back to base unnoticed.
TLDR
Grippen Dos:
Hug ground
Flank
Be annoying and harass other players
Grippen don’ts:
Fly high into the stratosphere
Engage in BVR fights
Think that your 4 AIM 120 (or counterparts) will be good (hint, you have less missiles than most 12.0s, you are not beating the F-15E/I, Eurofighter, or Su-series jets)
Nope, at 13.7 having only 4 FOX-3 is underwhelming to say the least, you face people with 14 missiles and way better airframes.
Also no, top tier is really unbalanced at the moment
no lmao. Typhoon and temu typhoons (rafale and J10a) being at the same BR region makes it quite literally worthless. 13.7 as a whole is a futile BR to even attempt until the better deltacanards and top tier America goes up to seriously decompress
Gripen is still very fine as an aircraft, it just doesn’t dominate like it once does and some people may find issue with the missile count
so what BR should it be? don’t tell me you think it should be lower
… you love compression so much don’t you
based on what???
It can still do well with proper flying
It can still do well with proper flying
Not really.
Its rather nerfed and missing a load of features. Fun aircraft, but woefully underpowered these days.
But if you play Italy and Especially Britain which is directly in-line (though Britain does also have the weakest one), you can grab a Gripen C and Typhoon at the same time.
But hopefully Sweden will get the Gripen NG or E soon and that will be very good.
Rafale is the best at the moment. Typhoon has a barely usable radar and its A2A weapons arent all that good at the moment.
But… Hopefully it can get its placeholder radar replaced next major update and we can soon get ASRAAM/IRIS-T
Based on the fact I use it in 1v1s and I do just fine with it. Beating Mirage, Rafale, and F-18s in it. It definitely needs a buff, but it is still an excellent jet when doing 1v1s, 2v2s, and the likes.
That is not evidence for it being the best 1v1 jet
I don’t think it beats Rafale, objectively speaking
Then I must be playing a very dumb Frenchman. Then again, I’ve messed with my controls enough to be able to whip 15Gs nearly instantly to shoot him.
1v1 fights at that BR are just skill based after a point, most of it is just proper speed management and taking good lines
Bla bla bla. Give me actual BoL and i Will Mark this plane a 13.7 plane again
it’s not bad enough to be 13.3 along with planes like 29SMT
Thats my playstyle, thank you for your detailed advice mate, I think I will go for the Gripen, and once again Grinding for the French Rafale. I never liked grinding. Been playing since Beta, I have all the planes in those first countries…
Gripen while not a plane they “talk” about anymore is what Im going for.
Thank You
LOL isnt that right!
with the current compression it can be both.
When compared to aircraft like the F-15C at 13.7 its underpowered as hell, with half the number of ARH (let alone the SAAF one with weaker ARH) and far weaker “BVR flight performance”
Pretty much the only thing its “good” at at the moment is WVR combat against anything that isnt 14.0.
But then its also much stronger than the 13.3 aircraft and so cannot go down.
Fixing BOL would fix a LOT of balance issues
Well let me ask you this fine pilot, why do I do so well in the JF 17? Against all these “super planes”. That is a question, not a sarcastic remark.
With a scant 4 S10s and a couple of really good IRS?
Whats making the Eurofighters and Rafales so good?
What country has the best Gripen mate? I would like your respected opinion. After that Im going for Rafale
I miss the dominance of the Mig29 family.
I could be wrong but I think Japan’s (Thailand), Italy’s (Hungary) and Sweden’s Gripen Cs are all identical at the moment and so no real difference. Only Britain’s (South Africa) is different with the R-Darters instead of AMRAAMs and they are… wierd… They loft loads and are weaker at long ranges but dont have the close range dogfighting performance of the MICA or R-77. I’ve made them work and seem to be decently fast if nothing else, but its probably the weakest one.
Sweden does also get the Gripen A which is unique at 13.0 (without AMRAAM) but can apparently be quite fun in a downtier, but a chore in an uptier, but if you play any ASB then that would be a strong aircraft in the 13.0 brackets.
They should also get the Gripen E or NG which would be the strongest, AESA radar, positive TWR and the much needed extra hardpoints to name but a few upgrades the E gets.