From the very first day that air-to-air missiles were added to War Thunder, an interesting phenomenon emerged: The Soviet Air Force rarely gained an air-to-air missile range advantage compared to other air forces (note that I only mentioned longer range here rather than better performance, because airframe performance, radar performance, missile overload, or auxiliary systems such as irst also affect the actual performance of the missile). gaijin’s upcoming launch of the f14a IRIAF has once again confirmed the problem, it not only has all the missiles of the f14a, but also a series of Iranian-developed fox1, fox3, and no doubt - the US Air Force. f14a, f14a IRIAF, f14b, well, predictably we’ll see aim54a, aim54c, and aim54a’s Iranian brothers rule the skies again.
But when we turn our eyes to reality, did the Soviet Air Force really not develop any longer-range missiles (at the time)? This was obviously not possible: the Soviet Union’s vast territory required a wide variety of high-speed interceptors for various interception missions, and the poor maneuverability of high-speed interceptors required longer-range missiles to avoid close combat situations. I will only list these missiles and their carriers here, and the details are for you to add.
R-9/R-98: can be equipped with yak-28, su-11, su-15 and other aircraft
R-4/R-80: can be equipped with tu-128
R-40: Can be equipped with mig25
R-33: Can be equipped with mig31
R-37: Can be equipped with mig31m
Now let’s get back to the main idea: with so much spin in reality, why don’t we get any in the game?
One could argue that the combination of mig31+r33e and mig31m+r37m is too strong to be added to the game right now. ok, we can understand that, so let’s put these two combinations on hold for now.
Some people will say that the mig25, tu128 is not suitable for the game environment, too strong on too big maps, too weak on too small maps. But please note: losat, bi, and other vehicles that don’t seem to fit the environment are also in the game, and there is no reason to reject the mig25 and tu128 just because they don’t fit the traditional concept of air combat.
When it comes to yak-28, su-11, su-15, presumably no one but bomber addicts will object, they are traditional aircraft, plus two backward r9 is not important.
But all of the above are beautiful fantasies for one simple reason: gaijin ignored them. Now that the Soviet Air Force tree has developed into the su27sm, mig29smt, su25sm3 and other extremely advanced aircraft, turning around and launching an older aircraft is no longer enough to attract players. At the same time, maintaining the Soviet Air Force tree’s inferiority in missile range also helped to attract players to other countries to keep the game active. This will likely continue until mig31+r33e and mig31m+r37m appear, but what monsters will they be up against then? aim120c? You never know.
Russia? Inferior? In War Thunder?
HA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
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Cute flag.
Oh this is gonna be a good one lol brave choice of topic
The R-27ER was the direct cause of lawnmover meta.
So I say rarely instead of all the time，but I also admit that the r27er ruled the skies for a while
Maybe we’ll see Su-15TM and with it R-8 and R-98 missiles
Well other than that im not against adding for example Mig-25, depending on the technical parametres of its missiles.
I have vague knowledge they were more aimed at taking down JSTARs and tankers rather than fighters, butnif they can work, why not.
US players will never admit when they have an advantage, US dominates the skies across the board but they always want to pretend it’s their skill that is what does it.
F-14 sucks apparently with a 70% winrate and a k/d of 3.5.
The aircraft or the missile since the missiles were aimed at the exact same issue the Phoenix was. Taking down enemy nuclear bombers like B-52 and Tu-95 etc so R33 would be fine
Sure, Russian air is quite bad right now, but your post isn’t really making sense.
R-27ER has been the longest range (usable against fighters) missile since the day it has been added up until this update. It outranged other SARH missiles by a factor of 2, sometimes even more.
Also you bring up R-37M, as if we have anything close that in game right now. Even if we get the best western missiles they will still lack the range compared to R-37M. And you bring it up now.
I don’t know how Russia can be fixed, but flightmodels are the first thing I would change.
R-73 is identical to NATO counterparts.
R-77 is obviously one of the best ARHs in the game despite its bugs.
And R-27ER is equivalent to AIM-7F/M having a slightly longer range when fired from Mig-29SMT.
None are weak.
To address your list:
R-9 and R-4 are likely useless.
R-40 is entirely useless, it’s an anti-strategic bomber missile and with that has the worst maneuverability.
Its default form is SARH, and R-40RD would be worse than a Phoenix.
R-33S is sort-of Phoenix equivalent, but R-33 is not as that’s just a SARH.
R-37 could be another Phoenix equivalent, but it also could be better.
No it wasn’t, AIM-7E2 and Skyflash were the cause of lawnmower meta. AIM-7F was added prior to R-27ER as well, which had the same range as each other initially [and still do if the ER is fired from Mig-29 9.12/9.13].
Mig-29SMT and Yak-141 weren’t in the game yet, and Yak-141’s >80km locking is difficult compared to Mig-29SMT’s.
R-27ER was one of the missiles to really be limited by host radar range whereas AIM-7F was always equipped to radars that exceeded its range… except F-16 radar.
Alvis to be 100% honest i dont think you are stupid, you are malicious and as such im not going to talk to you.
You either move the goalpost or gaslight all the time and when people call you out you go all "hurr durr why are you attacking the wt community.
Im going to block you now, i hope you have a good day.
The missile.
If it can hit fighter jets, add it
@BramborovySalat
So you’re going to block me for being a sincere and direct American that has never had a hint of malice in his heart?
Well, I guess thank you for conceding defeat to all future arguments to the War Thunder playerbase since you’ll be blocking the entire forum soon enough.
Funny you imply everyone is gaslighting you, especially autistic people…
Whenever people call out my sincerity and directness I don’t care.
When people call out my poor responses to insults I don’t care.
This may be a bit off topic: the r27er was not fully capable of its range when considering the poor radar of Soviet aircraft
You are right, but it was still on a different level compared to sparrows.
I share your sentiment that Russia needs buffs, but your arguments are not helping get people on your side.
It’s true that my title is over the top, but I think sometimes it’s the argument that’s too radical that gets people’s attention and discussion. Good content doesn’t matter if people don’t even click on it
jesus cry louder, literaly not the case, a LOT of aircraft dont have their weaponry for balance reason, you think thats only the case for russia ? the aircraft get balanced by their aircraft performance in those cases, they would act to bad with stronger missles which raises their br
Russia since a long time had a very strong advatange missle wise even, together with USA
A-10 and SU 25s in ARB decimated arb often trough all aspect missles while everyone else had rear aspect ones
Seriously you are not a victim, russia has been strong air wise since a long time, only right now is a current exception
The Mig-29 radar was good enough for the time. when R-27ER released, basing it on my experience spading german Mig-29A in may last year.
It was objectively weaker than F-16s radar but it was balanced by AIM-7F/Ms being worse.
Oh yeah?
USA, Japan, Italy, France, Sweden and Israel all have AMRAAMs on excellent platforms.
Germany and UK have AMRAAMs on bad platforms.
UK has an excellent platform without AMRAAMs (R-Darters instead)
Only nations I see with both bad airframes AND bad weapons (throw in subpar avionics for good measure) are Russia and China.
I really fail to see how anything besides China, Russia and Germany suffers. (I feel for Germany, with double the CMs their F-4 wouldn’t be so bad).
Not really true, Russia has dominated in radar missiles, while USA had a stronger IR missile.
I am not going to lie, since they nerfed the MiG-29’s flight model and buffed the F-16 in the same update Russia has been struggling. SU-27 was good in Air Superiority because F-15A had bad radar missiles and no HMS.