Sure but it’s still competitive in ground RB and has really good flight performance. The F-15J(M) might have been king before the F-15E and is still up there but that’s only air RB and there’s more to the game than one mode.
I also notice you left out the Mirage. The same argument for not adding the F-2 could be used to not add the Rafale.
While I agree with this sentiment, this isn’t always true. F-16AJ for example ended up being copy paste of the F-16A but came 3 months later.
Again you’re just looking at air RB. F-2 would solve Japan’s top tier CAS issue while also being a domestic addition.
That won’t change if we wait 1 year or 5 years, especially when these aircraft are going to be used actively for decades to come. Why wait when you can rip the band-aid off now.
You joke but it might happen lol. People always say something is too soon then get surprised when Gaijin skips ahead. Happened with F-16, F-15, EFT, etc. I’m sure we’ll see F-22 in 2025.
I’d argue it’d be about the same and get forgotten especially since the US got nothing for once and even though they have the F-15E, and outside of a bit of grumbling it’s business as usual. The real star of this update is the EFT and everything else is secondary, including the Rafale.
My entire argument is made around air RB air, and ad i said earlier imho adding aircraft just because a country (supposedly in case of F-15e su34)needs CAS without caring about air RB shouldn’t happen.
Again, Rafale was added because if it was not added together with the Rafale the forum would be filled with angry french mains lol (/s).
That whole thing was controversial, imho they should have added it immediately since it was clear as day F-4ej kai didn’t stand a chance against 4th gens but it should have been a block15 instead of a block10 with sparrows.
I wouldn’t have minded the F2 being added at all, don’t get me wrong. What i am relatively fine about is that the countries that didn’t get anything for once all had something still not completely useless in top tier air.
Fighter aircraft additions logic should prioritize air modes first.
How about just stopping at 4.5 gen?
F-15C with aesa, F-18E/F and F-15E for US.
EFT for Uk,Ger and italy
Rafale for france
F2 for Japan
Su-35(maybe, as with tvc FM would likely be complete fantasy again (same issue i have with 5th gen) and/or Su-27M, MiG-29M and MiG-31M/BM for USSR
J-10B/C and J-16 for China
F-15I or any more advanced F-15 for israel
Gripen E for Sweden
And we all avoid getting into the mess that is 5th gen +?
I hope not but it’s unfortunately likely true… can already see this forum explode with F-22 vs Su57 threads lol
I think they wanted to get the door sparrows working but it’s still something that should have been priority or just added at the same time as is and worry about the sparrows later.
To be fair, F-2 is supposed to be a replacement to the F-1 which is primarily a bomber first and fighter second. F-2 was built under the same mindset considering it only had sparrows and only later retrofitted to use AAM-4s (can’t even use AIM-120s).
While that would be better for gameplay, I think it’s hard for Gaijin to avoid the money that will flood in with the F-22 and SU-57. F-22 being leaked as being worked on doesn’t help either. At the very least the increasing need for weapon payload being more important will keep planes relevant. For example, AAM-5 on an F-2 will keep it relevant even against F-22s.
F-22 won’t get to play right because the maps are small.
They’ll get pulled into dogfights and IR slugfests where their advantage is moot. They’ll get to do fun acrobatic maneuvers in 1 vs 1 but I’m sure with the next gen of IR missiles that will be there at some point, it will remove any advantage of doing all that.
They can keep some distance, fire 120C off, and then use their 2 9X with helmet less HOBS to similar effect as an HMD fighter. In sim it’ll be a monster though
Sure, but with multipathing and current ARH gameplay, it’s not hard to close in the gap and once that is done it’s going to come down to who has more IR missiles and can get the shot off first.
Yea I’m just being practical. Air had to leapfrog because many nations invested in Gen 4.5s as they couldn’t spend as much money as the US and RU with many Gen 4s and their variants. Now that we’re finally here, top tier can have some kind of parity again and it’s not bad idea to slow down here.
Although on the other hand the few Gen 5s that do exist won’t tip the game in any direction considering they all rely on things that the game freely gives (situational awareness with markers in air RB).