The MiG‑29SMT, Su‑27SM, and Su‑34 currently in the game employ the older R‑77 air-to-air missile, but real-world documentation indicates the Russian Air Force did not field the standard R-77 — rather they moved to the improved R‑77‑1.
The R-77 (Izd. 170) never entered service with the Russian Air Force, as the service did not have the funding to acquire it during the latter part of the 1990s and early 2000s. By the time this situation had been redressed, a first-stage upgrade of the design was in the pipeline. However, the basic missile was widely exported as the RVV-AE (Izd. 190).
It was only with the entry into service of the R-77-1 (AA-12B, Izd. 170-1; for export RVV-SD) in about 2015 that the air force finally had an active radar-guided medium-range missile in its inventory.
Honestly at their respective BRs, I’m happy with the R-77.
Even if they carried the 77-1 I don’t feel the BR step up would be worth it.
Just wait for more modern versions of these aircraft.
And be catapulted to 14.0 in ARB? Riiiight. I can see Su-34 thanks to it radar (so it can capitalize on better missiles and compensate for flight performance), but MiG-29SMT or Su-27SM? Naaah
It has a slightly better radar, which is irrelevant anyway due to the poor range of r77. SMT still has a worse fm. I guess 4x additional r73 are just for show, totally not a massive advantage. It would be one thing if the su30 lacked hmd or something, but as far as their respective playstyles go, the smt is just inferior at the same br. Just like the mig29g at the same br as the su27.
oh yeah having a 85° gimabl limit is just useless ig
having way better acceleration is also useless because who would want to positon themselfs better at a start of an match
having more CMs is also irrelevant, who needs CMs anyways right?
The gimbal of the radar might matter if the fm was better to actually get in a notch but it doesn’t. Only thing is you get slightly further hmd thresholds which to be fair is an advantage, but not enough of one to merit the same br. When you’re comparing 4x r73 to a slightly increased gimbal limit idk what to say.
The extra cm do matter, except the poor fm will get you killed before you’ve even dropped half of them.
Edit: Scratch that, its 96 large caliber vs like 56 large and 60small. The su30 has better cm.
