- Yes
- No
With the latest major update “heavy cavalry” some planes got the ability to attack ground targets without ever being in sight of SPAA with the “man-in-the-loop” function. The only reliable way to destroy them is to directly hunt them down with another plane. Currently players seem to not choose air-superiority loadouts because for a few hundred more SP you can take a CAS loadouts or get an helicopter with plenty of FnF for less SP.
Reducing the spawn point cost of air-superiority loadouts would encourage players to actively counter enemy CAS rather than adding more ground attack aircraft or helicopters to the match. This would improve the combined-arms gameplay by making air-to-air combat a more accessible and practical counter to long-range CAS, instead of relying solely on SPAAs that may be unable to engage these threats.
This would also be effective against helicopters as it’s hard to destroy them as an SPAA when they stay close to a cover such as a mountain. If Gaijin adds “man-in-the-loop” capability to helicopters as they initially intended to, air superiority would become necessary.
This change would not make SPAA obsolete as they would still be cheaper, better at ordnance interception and have a quicker reaction time to incoming air threats.
As an example of SP price (I’m only top tier in France so I can only give number for this nation) :
my Mirage 2000-5F (BR 12.7) in:
Air to Air (mica) : 712 SP
Air to Ground with laser ordnance (AS-30L) : 756 SP
Air to Ground with FnF TV guidance (PGM) : 797 SP
my Tigre HAC (BR 12.7):
Air to Ground FnF (Trigat-LR) : 687 SP
(game default loadout come with rockets, they don’t impact SP cost)
my Rafale (BR 13.0):
Air to air (mica) : 712 SP
Air to Ground with laser bombs (GBU-12) : 705
Air to Ground with laser/GNSS bombs (GBU-49) : 775
Air to Ground with laser/GNSS missiles (AASM SBU 54) : 728 SP
Air to Ground with FnF (AASM SBU 64) : 900 SP
