Operation Pitch Black 2024 - F-2 dropping GPS guided bomb
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Nah, so, firstly, the F-2 is just going to come with the J/APG-2, it would be so DOA it may as well have arrived with the F-16C if they gave it a J/APG-1, seeing as it lacked the J/ARG-1 datalink transceiver needed to effectively use the AAM-4 (though it could still technically be mounted).
And, honestly, even with the J/APG-2, it’s still not gonna be great.
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Honestly, it shouldn’t be 14.0, unless gaijin gives the AAM-4 and J/APG-2 their full capabilities it’s going to be a very mediocre 13.7.
Even if gaijin gives it 6x aam-4, as it was planned/technically possible depending on the pylon arrangement, it still wouldn’t really be good at 14.0
Yes, that’s what I think as well, if they even have one and didn’t just get a random guy to google it. All mistakes with the F-16A Block 15 OCU are easy misconceptions.
- There is Thai F-16As fitted with AMRAAM, but those were either the ADF variant, or OCU aircraft modernized to eMLU standard, while the base OCU still couldn’t carry them.
- The OCU in game is missing two countermeasure dispensers, but this is likely confused with F-16 ADF models that never had those additional launchers in Thai service.
- The countermeasures currently are two ALE-40 launchers in the tail, one large and one small caliber. That’s technically possible for ALE-40, just inconvenient, and weird that it’s the only ALE-40 equipped aircraft to have this limitation.
- HMD was integrated with the OCU, two different types even, but not the one in game. The F-16B variants got DASH alongside Python 3/4 integration, while the eMLU upgrade also added JHMCS to the F-16A. But none of those are the F-16A OCU in game
- Missing armament is just missing armament. Probably someone googling a bunch of images before they had a good enough list and never bothering to find the AGM-65G/G-2 or GBU-16, or maybe even misidentified them for armament already found.
Sadly that’s unlikely, we don’t even know the intended type of HMD. It’s either Gaijin wants it to have HMD and adds it, or they don’t and don’t add it. No matter what we do, I doubt we can change it without requiring more sources than we have.
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Uhh we do actually know a bit about the type of HMD intended, it was gonna have a multi-colour display for designation of targets based on type (from sensor fusion + datalink), and was gonna have over the shoulder capabilities for the AAM-5. IIRC they also wanted it to have an automatic threat priority system, which used AI to instruct the pilot on which target to go for, as that’s something japan was also working on at the same time as the HMD.
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so, firstly, the F-2 is just going to come with the J/APG-2, it would be so DOA it may as well have arrived
People said that about the F-18 Legacy hornets etc.
The F-2 doesn’t exactly compare favorably to the Hornets though.
It has a really restrictive 4+4 loadout, 6+4 is a hypothetical we probably couldn’t prove if they don’t initially add it (I doubt it). CAS armament is rather mediocre with only JDAM/LJDAM unless they add GCS-1, which is still very restrictive, or ASMs that would go against their reasoning for not adding Grom yet. It doesn’t match the AoA of a Hornet and while it is a bit faster and probably sustains a bit better, without the unlikely addition of ME that won’t really be enough of an advantage either, especially with the lack of HMD.
We would have to trust Gaijin a lot to believe that F-2 could work properly.
Unique control modes like ME and DY, improved radar and datalink modelling, fixed missiles, theoretical loadouts and domestic CAS weapons don’t seem likely enough to expect besides maybe some gimped form of ASM-2 just so Gaijin can say it has them.
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from what im aware of the F-2 can carry mavericks
and comparing to the hornets part was people sayings its “DOA”
also im hoping they implement the GCS-1 for japan as well as the F-2A given its been around since 2021 in the live server files
Ngl, i’ve yet to find a single proper source that says it does, about the only thing that says it does is wikipedia, theres no images of it, nothign official saying it can, and even magazines like janes’s or Jwings don’t mention it.
Also, i’m not aware of japan possessing any lau-88 rails, so, even if we were to assume that against everything they could mount it and just choose not to, like ASMs on the inner most pylon, it would only likely be 1 per rail, so really just not much point taking them over a ASM-2 at that point.
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Honestly when they are lenient about GCS-1 and give us a lock on before launch it could be very good. The F-2 can carry TERs with three 500lb GCS-1 on the three inner hardpoints of each wing, which in theory means a total of 18 IR guided bombs. Maybe 19 if there’s another centrally mounted, but since I’ve never seen that I’ll assume it can’t until proven wrong.
That’s not only an amazing loadout as is, but also allows it to take 2 ARH missiles while still carrying 12 of them, or a full air to air armament with 6 of them.
Though if the GCS-1 are realistic self-searching they will be very situational, or they might just not come considering we already have eight other aircraft that should have them in game.
ASMs could also be very good, especially if they allow fuel tank stations with ASMs. That would allow for 4/2 loadouts with ASM/ARH or a total of 6 ASMs in a loadout.
This one’s also very dependent on what Gaijin adds and how they do it, but in the sadly unlikely best case scenario F-2 could actually hold its own in CAS.
Then with unique FCS modes alongside or somehow integrated with maneuver mode, the theoretical 6+4 AAM loadout, possibly planned HMD and J/APG-2 radar it could even be decent in air to air. Not meta defining by any means, but decent.
But it’s just unfortunate that for F-2 to be considered good we need to put this much trust in the same people that got us here with their F-2 delays in the first place…
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My optimistic side is hoping this is the reason it hasnt come yet because with a full theoretical loadout it could actually be quiet good in terms of its kit and radar and decently good cas for both close and long range. And an extended air to air loadout but…well doubt it.
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Y’alls talk about the inner pylons make me believe the reason why F-2 wasn’t planned for March was due to research hurdles.
With F-15JM covering the capability for the time being, they can take longer if and when research problems arise.
Makes sense from a development point of view.
Sucks from a we want the F-2 now point of view.
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Ngl i would’ve been less mad if we got it 6 months ago with a half assed loadout then i will be with basically any loadout we end up getting when it comes next patch or god forbid even later. They always could’ve just added it in and added stuff to the inner pylon later if enough sources turned up, they’ve done similar for other planes.
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The strangest bit is that there’s multiple variants they could add and yet it seems they’re banking it all being on the latest F-2 model. At least, we hope it’s the latest because anything else would just be a joke.
They had their biggest chance to add the XF-2A for Air Superiority instead of the F-15J as it’d have the same loadouts but something unique for Japan. Then they could have added the F-15J(M) (as F-15J) in the ARH update as usual. Why they fumbled the ball is hard to say, especially since it seems they rushed the EFT and Rafale.
At least, given that the F-2 and F-18E have been leaked by Gszabi, they are most likely setup for next update along with maybe J-10B, so we don’t have to wait too much longer. Then again there’s still 3 other updates left, excluding the December one as that most certainly looks like Gen 5 update at the rate we’re going.
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(AI Translation) Recent attitudes from Gaijin toward Japan are quite concerning… The armor fragmentation issue of the Type 90B was fixed, the Jingyun fighter was removed, and the armor of the Type 5 Ho-Ri Tank was adjusted (making it more vulnerable to large-caliber HE shells)… Does this continuous nerfing of the Japanese tech tree mean it’s being neglected? I’m skeptical about the F-2’s capabilities. Or is Gaijin deliberately suppressing expectations now to hype up the F-2 later?
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It somewhat makes sense assuming only late F-2, but then considering the much more simple to add early F-2 with only SARH missiles it’s weird again, since that could’ve been here much sooner. Chances are because F-2 variants weren’t renamed for licensing issues Gaijin just sees “F-2A” as one plane and just completely ignored early models.
My main issue with that isn’t even the delay itself, but the implication of it. F-2 is the flagship domestic aircraft for Japan. Everything after it is either foreign, unfinished prototypes or still in development. So the F-2 is the most important aircraft Japan has to attract players to Japan that don’t already play the nation, to potentially make them stick around and make Japan as a whole more popular.
F-2 can work at a lower BR than top tier, but that’ll severely limit it in the role of flagship player-magnet.
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I mean “early” and “late” mentions exist for that purpose
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I mean the F-2 early and late were separately passed to devs iirc? this shouldn’t be an issue, gaijin just chose not to add it when they very well could’ve.
Yes, but in that case “early” F-2 is a year late. More likely they just planned to add one, and only ever noticed the differences when they started researching at a time already too late for the early one.
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The F-2 will at this point be so late, Gaijin would have to give it the AAM-4B with increased notch and multipath resistance to make it worth it.
That is if they plan to make it 14.0 or higher, which they probably do, otherwise what was all the ‘‘too advanced’’ shit about?
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