J8F Is Awful

Pilots beware, this top tier jet is a nightmare to use. Steer clear of this vehicle and grab the f16 instead. What you get is a mig21bis but less maneuverable at 11.7 with only ir missiles that have MUCH worse flare resistance than pl5b (3.6fov vs 2.4). This vehicle would at least be good at ratting around if the pl8s seeker wasn’t so sensitive to everything. If you try to derp kill jets with the hmd its very likely a single accidental flare from a distant jet will ruin its track against an f14 going full burner. This vehicle has NO business being 11.7 when kfir and kurnass 2000 carry the same or better payload at 11.3

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It’s got placeholder missiles currently

The J-8F is known to carry the PL-12 BVRAAMs (beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles), but adding them to the game would mean the J-8F has a significant advantage over all opponents on the battlefield. Our team also had the idea to equip the fighter with PL-11 missiles as a placeholder, but such missiles could not be used on the J-8F due to lack of the target illumination radar. Therefore, we decided to introduce a set of 6 PL-8 missiles for the J-8F, which make the aircraft an excellent duellist at medium and close distances. The PL-12 missiles, same as other medium-range active seeker missiles for fighters of other game nations, will appear in War Thunder at the same time in one of the future game updates.

[Development] J-8F jet fighter and future plans on the BVRAAMs - News - War Thunder.

Probably going to be a pain in the ass when it gets finished, though the fact they had to add a Chinese jet 15 years more modern than any other nation to get even something slightly balanced is kinda funny

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PL-5B it’s not enough and awful for J-8F, so I might hope gajin consider PL-5E instead PL-5B this quarter

I guess dev could add PL-12 on J-8F & increase to 12.3 Q4

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The problem is that the current state of ir missiles makes using them against sentient targets near impossible as currently even a single low caliber flare will defeat a pl8 in the rear aspect against a jet with burners on.

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I would immediately take pl5c/e over pl8 anyday. The pl5’s burn time and maneuverability is just so meta

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Yeah, though thats true for most nations. Gr7 is basically unplayable at 11.7 these days for the same reason. though at least you have BVRAAM on the horizon, Gr7 is likely stuck with 9Ls forever,

That is exactly what is going to happen, unless they’ve changed their minds since the dev post for it

Indeed. I suppose harrier could receive aim9m though? Which could alleviate some of the problem

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Possibly, though would rather get Gr9 and leave the Gr7 as is. That way we get Brimstone in A2G for the higher BR bracket. Though just be better to fix IR Missiles. Most should be unaffected by flares if the target is on reheat. Definetly know thats the case for 9Ls at least. We also have options like Aim-9/I and British bodge mods of the 9ls too,

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The PL8 in the game is not even the PL8B equipped with J8F, but the PL8A used by J7E and J8B. The difference between PL8B and PL8A is that the PL8A is a monster snake 3 produced in China without any modifications. However, the upgrade of the PL8B’s seeker has greatly improved its resistance to interference

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just wait a few months. Gaijin said they will add PL-12 soon

Gajin said add PL-12 on J-8F almost 2 month ago ?

They said PL-12s ARE coming in the original dev post, but at the same time of other Fox-3 Like AMRAAM for obvious balancing reasons

it will come soon. If they add Gripen by the end of this year we might get more modern ARH missiles alongside it.

At the current state J8F sucks. I havent seen a single J8F get more than 1 kill.Most of them just die early

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Yeah, F3 desperately need AMRAAM and I think we’ll see SHar FA2 before the year is out too. Only reason I can think of why they havent finished the FRS1 yet

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I think they took the seeker tech from r73s and put it into their modified python 3

I don’t believe Gaijin’s promise. Last time, he promised to distribute PL8 to J8B and J7E. Now, after about a year and six months, Gaijin only distributed PL8 to J8F. Looking back at the historical background, the PL8A and 9L are air to air missiles of the same era.

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No, the upgrade of PL8B is to change the front cover of the guide head from glass to opaque material, but this greatly improves its anti-interference performance.

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When AMRAAMs come, the IR missile meta gets stronger.
Might not be right away, but no one will ever climb again.