I think the J-35XS needs to have it’s BR reviewed. At 10.3, it will see flareless planes sometimes. But 10.3 is also the BR where formerly flareless (think mirage 5F vs 5BA) begin getting flares.
J-35XS has one of the worst airframes for its BR, and the 6 missiles is as meaningful as a tank carrying full ammo because this plane is very unsustainable in the length it can stay in combat practically. How?
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It’s flare count is horrible
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The airframe is one of worst
I have fought mid-early mig 21s (the ones with rear R60s) and I can say that I’ve been outmaneuvered by them on first turn.
This is outrageous because planes line T-2/F-1/Mirage are faster at turning than J-35XS, but also doesn’t drain all energy in one turn and some has better acceleration.
Finally, 9Ps are decent missiles, but they are not Magics and has a much slower speed/delay before the missile can maneuver. Mirage IIIC and 5F gets magic at earlier BR but they have similar combat length.
After all, 12 flares is as good as nothing, when it has to preflare fast missiles like PL-5B or magic, or even worse, R-73 from Su-25SM and Su-39.
Finally, I think it has the worst gun around it’s BR range, only slightly better than the Q-5s, imagine French DEFA (infamous for Hit +30 SL) but only one of them, and no tracers for the default belt if you want to save SL
All in all, it’s a missile bus that can’t frontally attack enemies. It’s in very much the same position as the F-104J, where it can’t take advantage of the missile count.