You can somewhat guess the performance of both, the AIM-120D and the F-16 Block 52. They won’t buff the FM of the F-16 much or not at all while the AIM-120D shares its aerodynamic characteristics with the C-5 mostly. If they still go by “muh small control surfaces means bad maneuverability” then yes, the AIM-120D will just fly further but not turn any better. It’s funny how the missile gets every ability to do HOBS but has no maneuverability to act on it.
The consequence would be an F-16 with slightly increased performance (+AESA) and a missile which flies further.
it only has 6 missiles and its radar isnt good enough to hold tws lock while notching, so the gps guidance will be nearly useless in actual gameplay, even the gripen e has 3 more missiles than the f16 at the same br, alongside a better radar and flight performance
a new f16 was the last thing the us needed as a new addition in my opinion, its not going to be any better than the f18e or f15cge even if it has 120ds
Relax, it was so placeholder they couldn’t even show it to us in a test drive. It will NOT stay 13 tons. The more important issue is the engine being wrong (again placeholder), and lack of SLERA (gonna be NERA ingame) armor on the front or sides.
to be completely honest, even if it had the turn performance of a mica and 100km range, it still wouldnt be much use on a plane that can only take 6 of them