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.
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
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.
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?
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.
I spaded F-16A at 13.0 recently and that was fine so I can say without a doubt that the Gripen A is fine at 13.0 even in uptiers… it’s still not difficult to get 1-2 kills per game
Didnt say you couldnt get kills, only that its probably a chore (as in takes a lot more effort). Having to spend the initial phases on the defensive until the fight goes WVR and then head in with only AIm-9M.
… No? When would I have said this? All I’ve said that is negative about the 13.0 IR planes is that you have to fly defensive for the first half of the game as you just said. This does not make them bad or overly difficult to play.
I would say go for the Italian Grippen. You get the MiG 29, Grippen, and Eurofighter. The Italian F-16 is weak, but hey, you get three amazing fighters and a very underwhelming F-16