then that means that, if the MiG29 was modelled correctly, it shouldn’t that far from the f18 and the su27 in high alpha manoeuvres
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I don’t know where you got this conclusion. The MiG-29 should be better than it is now, but not on par with F/A-18 or Su-27.
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Everything I had read so far said it was relatively close to the hornet in terms of nose authority, but I never looked deeply into it
Maybe in a straight vertical, but the hornet has much higher stability that allows him to yaw / roll + pitch upwards of 60+ degrees remaining in full control the entire time… whereas the MiG-29’s “Cobra” would not be useful for a gun solution on a target incorporating roll + pitch, the F/A-18 could keep nose on target vector even outside of just lateral or vertical plane.
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Well the cobra is mostly useful to shoot an R73 than using the gun… in a gunfight actually sustained turn rate (either flat turning or doing loops) is usually more important than high AoA manoeuvres…
That’s also why I was (am) insisting so much also on the rate of the 29, the F-16 and other aircraft in general.
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In modern gen4.5+ fights nose pointing is required in the fight as it devolves into a tight min radius scissors to stay outside the weapons employment zone of HOBS missiles (min engagement range). AIM-9X and R-73 for example.
So, in these situations, the F/A-18 can actually win, whereas an F-16 often will lose the encounter against something like Su-27 WVR…
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Yeah with HOBS missiles AoA manoeuvres are extremely important, perhaps the only thing that matter (no wonder one of the improvements they went for in the mig29M is extra Aoa).
That’s also why most of Europe went with canard-delta. They optimized BVR capability thereafter with Meteor and such. Russia still has a focus on WVR capabilities and so did Europe. US has gone away from this mostly, but the Raptor and F-35 are both VERY capable still.
Russia doesn’t actually focus on WVR, from the little I know supermaneuvrability is mostly an “extra tool”. Since real life fights are not 1v1, even if the engagement does not end in BVR you usually won’t see aircraft circling each other slow, but quickly pointing the nose it’s still useful, which is something the raptor and the F-35 are also very good at.
Still all nations have their focus on BVR.
Guys I really urge you all to watch this. This guy is clearly an expert on history and capability. He goes in depth about the the differences between the Mig29 and Su27. He also goes into history regarding the blitz fighter concept (F16), The orgin of the F15, Mig25 and the doctrinal approach of the Soviets and US.
As I know from all my research in the history of cold war aviation he has not misspoken. However I did take a little offense to what he said about the Mig23. However he does not mention the MLD.
He says some awesome things about the Mig29 over the Su27 vice versa. Let me know you guys thoughts.
He specifically touches on SMT as well. This thing should perform much better in terms of thrust to weight.
Sorry to go off topic, but…
We really need features like this in RB
If possible, a feature that would allow AOA as well as G restrictions at the same time, with one button to remove the restrictions, would make air RB air combat great
I am of the opinion that using keybinds should bypass the mouse-control instructor
The NO19 radar was definitely a Mig23 radar as I have stated. The West already knew everything they needed to know about the Mig23 radar. Not only that, Adolf Tolkachev told the US exactly everything needed to be known about the Mig29s radar. It was not impressive in the slightest.
Aside from knowing everything about the Mig29s (Mig23 radar), Tolkachev gave the CIA complete detailed information about projects such as the R-23,R-24, R-33, R-27 R-60 S-300, MiG-31and Su-27
In fairness, the MiG-23 was a pretty bad aircraft for the time.
It entered service almost alongside the F14, was notorious for killing its pilots because of its engine, and got out turned by agile eagle F4Es
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I know… But the MLD is good! I know I have a little bias about it.
The west never got their hands on it afik either
He didn’t supply much information on R-27 or we’d have more accessible public data on it today.
If you leave the wing sweep at 45 degrees it does not do so well, but it’s stall recovery was actually quite easy and after 1976 they resolved many of the structural issues and longevity problems with the airframes.
It was noteworthy that the MLD in real life put up quite a fight against unexpecting F-14 Tomcat pilots when the MiG-23 pilots were somewhat competent / would allow the use of full forward sweep.
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The MiG-23MLD had the same flight control system as the MiG-29, it allowed the pilots to more freely maneuver without concerns of AoA or G limitations in forward sweep. The improved leading edge flaps and this new flight control system’s implementation are not done properly in war thunder. The AoA is underperforming, the sustained turn rate is underperforming… until we get our hands on a proper MiG-23MLD manual we won’t be able to report it.
Regarding the common myth of F-4E > MiG-23… The basic MiG-23ML when flown by inexperienced pilots who kept the wings in 45 degree sweep was slightly outperformed by a F-4E Phantom. A simple decision to move the wings to a forward sweep of 33 degrees (permitted for experienced pilots on MLA+ models) … would drastically move the performance in favor of the MiG-23.
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I think we need the Su27 tbh and then they can unlock the awg9 a little. There is no way the F18 and F15 can come in first while the Soviets are just rocking a SMT (in this state at least).
Which I am 100% certain the thrust is a little lacking at this point. I know the stats may say something but the SMT is no where in hell coming close to a 1:1 TTW or even a 7-8.
Not saying the SMT should be a 1:1 but it should feel much better. You cannot toss the SMT around even on min fuel
Also, they need to revist the MLD and give the R73 to it.
I did not pay much attention to R27. But I did not think so as well.
an intersting video none the less but my point is that I do not think the SMT should be this hard to throw around thrust wise. I mean, I have literally chosen 20 min fuel just to get rocked in the vertical as if I had 30min or full. It made no discernable difference.
Su-27SK would have the ability to mount 6 R-27ER & 4 R-73 iirc… F-15 and F-14 can mount a maximum of 6 radar missiles… not entirely ideal for balancing purposes unless they add the F-15 with AMRAAM.
SMT will probably also get R-77.
Fixed MiG-23MLD w/ R-73 would definitely be 11.7 - 12.0 worthy.
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