the Strike Eagle makes far more sense in the Aardvark line than it does in the AV-8B+ line or F-15C line
As the F-15C will just perform better at A2A (unless they choose a later F-15E), the AV-8B+ line is for more close air support aircraft, while the F-15E LITERALLY REPLACED THE AARDVARK
The Super Hornet replaced the Tomcat yet they did not have the same roles, and there are still gaps of capabilities that remain today. The role of the replacing aircraft is not defined by the preceding aircraft.
No one ever started grinding the Bomber line expecting to find an F-15 Eagle at the end.
The AV-8B+ line is the default Attacker/Strike Aircraft line; ground attack planes that can also engage in self-defence as multirole fighters if needed be.
The Aardvark line on the other hand is the medium and heavy bomber line all the way up until Rank VII; and even in Rank VII, we are looking at large and heavy attackers that can’t really double up as fighters too well.
For the Aardvark line, planes like B-52, B-1, F-117, etc, are far more fitting, while F-15E most definitely fits best on the AV-8B line.
The F-117 never should’ve been classified as a fighter and is very much an edge case. I’ve yet to find any reason it was, outside of very silly reasons.
They are both tactical bombers, and the US military doesn’t have any more aircraft that can carpet bomb, none that would be higher in BR then the F-111 anyway. Either the line gets the F-15E, or the line stops dead at the F-111.
Late F-14 and Super Hornet had the same roles and Super Hornet only improved on those except for long range fleet defense that F-14 performed with AIM-54… funny enough Super Hornets got their long range fleet defense weapon at the end (AIM-174).
So yeah - direct successor in this case
As others have pointed out a few times. Japan has the perfect Gen 4 candidate via the XF-2A which can tweaked even further by giving it the F-16Cs radar. It would have the same loadout as the F-15J with 4 x AAM-3 and 4 x AIM-7Ms. Of course nowadays, they could give it the 4 x AAM-4s but it just wouldn’t have datalink so require a hardlock for mid-course corrections. At most, Japan would have had to wait till the F-16C got added later in the year, so another 3-4 months. Would it have sucked? Yes, but to say they had nothing till the F-15J is false.
The reason the AJ got added was for CAS, which admittedly isn’t needed anymore as there’s the Thai F-5 at a lower BR. At the BR it is at, the current AJ cannot perform CAS at all if there’s SPAA about.
It’s funny to see you guys have this in-depth philosophical discussion about what makes an aircraft a fighter, bomber, attacker, multirole, etc. where some of you get a little too worked up about it
Meanwhile Gaijin will resolve the matter using this cutting edge method
Probably. I’m still annoyed that the Alaska is considered a Battlecruiser instead of a Heavy Cruiser. Sure, it fills out the niche of a BC, but it was built to the standards of a HC, not a BC or BB, and made heavy use of HC fittings.
XF-2 would’ve overperformed anything we had in game at the time of F-16A addition with 8 missiles and “tweaked F-16C radar”. It would have no guided A2G munitions too
The role of late F-14D or F-14B (U) was still fleet air defence above all, their ability to do ground strike was really just a way to make the F-14 live longer, so no they did not have the same role. The F/A-18 Super hornet was designed a a multirole aircraft and used as such.
That’s true, did they enter service yet or are they still in testing?
could be added together with the Eurocanards tho
Yeah, kinda sucks for Italy this time, same as previous update though, on the other hand there was one of the best fishing boats of all time - MAS 441.
Imao the tech tree is hosting 3 nations now and still barely getting stuff, subtrees don’t work…
Although there is still a hope to see something unrevealed.
From other nations, Scimitar would be the first to grind for me, then maybe I’ll continue to open Japanese stuff (at 9.0 currently in ground).
from my understanding the F/A-18 was supposed to be more of a Phantom…class? Aircraft as in its a heavy truck that’ll carry anything and everything you put on it
I admit, I forgot about the XF-2A but even taking it into consideration the time gap between the addition of the EJ kai and the XF-2 (if it came with F-16C) would still be 2 years, an amount of time German will not have to wait for a new top jet
yea, just a year and maybe a half between F4F-(sch)ICE and Typhoon Tranche 1
Yeah it really is more like an oversize heavy cruiser rather than a diet battleship.
IIRC it was defined as “large cruiser” at the time.
Either way, I personally think the whole “battlecruiser” concept was outdated by WW2. What’s the point of a battleship that sacrifices armor for speed if the technology now allows battleships with armor and speed. Fast battleships in other words.
Also, I haven’t gotten that far in TT anyway. Does the classification matter in-game?
That would be such a cool addition.
The official published reason was the exact same as the F-105, being that pilots wanted to fly fighters over bombers.
Does the XF-2A not use the J/APG-1?
