its still totally possible to just add the prototype? which didnt exist for the F-X
oops yeah, misremembered
Actually, if we go by that standard as the lowest bar for addition I’d have to agree. X-2 as built is not a combat aircraft.
sure, the prototype with no weapons capability.
You want to make tweaks to the YF-23 to make it just barely game worthy, but you won’t allow those same tweaks for the X-2
I get that from the outside the YF-23 looks more complete, but from the sounds of it, it’s actually missing more than the X-2 is, you have an airframe and engines, but no avionics or weapons whereas all the X-2 was missing was a finalized airframe, everything else was just as or more developed than the YF-23 and given those CAD images we have a good idea of what that could have looked like.
I don’t particularly agree with either being added but I can’t really see how you can argue for the YF-23 and against the X-2
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well the YF-23 had avionics, just not the final advanced ones, those were being tested on flying labs
iirc it shared a lot with the strike eagle cockpit wise
If that is the standard he is asking for (even if Gaijin isn’t), then he is right, X-2 was unarmed and past one windtunnel model there is no known armed configuration that wasn’t an at least slightly upscaled model (since X-2 didn’t have space for the weapons bay)
Spoiler
Windtunnel model with weapons bay. This seems to be an impossible configuration since it cuts into the space for the landing gear. The nose is also not enlarged, so the radar wouldn’t fit.
23DMU, closest to armed X-2. It is larger to fit the weapons bay and radar, and uses more powerful XF9 engines compared to the X-2s F7s to offset the additional weight. Other notable changes are the delta wing, the new canopy replacing the one taken from the T-4 and the swept rudders and elevators more similar to those of the F-2. Thrust vectoring is also no longer the paddle style of the X-2, but a mpre conventional design.
Overall this is a lot of changes, just to get to the closest armed X-2 configuration.
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I would say the issue with the X-2 is it was never intended to receive weapons. It was a proof of concept that Japan could manufacture Stealth aircraft.
That is Gaijin’s standard. The EAP is a no because the airframe that flew was not intended to be armed. The YAK-141 is a yes because the airframe that flew was intended to be armed.
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The heck happened here, I was gone for one day due to technical issues
Normal RnR thread stuff
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Using X-2 to refer to the whole project as it’s easier than typing 26DMU, but my issue is that the YF-23 imo isn’t enough for addition to the air tree, it is further from completion than something like the Yak-141 and was also scrapped before key decisions were made about it, like if you try and follow the “what if” they picked the 23 instead of the 22 you just end up with an F-22 in a different shell for the most part, just comparing the YF-22 to the F-22 you can see that these are clearly just tech demonstrators not intended as final products
Except it really wasn’t. They ran acoustic tests on the weapons bays and they were made to fit munition. In all purpose they could have received the same minimal change as the 141 and work. But they did have other intentions if they won the contract.
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Yes, X-2 is a big no.
But armed F-X designs had specific parts made that make them (or probably just 26DMU) fit Gaijins standard instead.
Here’s the other thing, I don’t particularly agree with the 141 but at least it is adding something the Russians wouldn’t otherwise get, the YF-23 was in direct competition unlike the 141, when the 141 failed it wasn’t because something else was better it was just canceled, the YF-23 lost to the YF-22 so we got the F-22, there is no missed opportunity there, there was program, it was completed, we have the final result.
They fit Gaijin’s more lax suggestion forum standard. In theory they no longer fit the add to the game standard for non-ships.
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That is the only standard we really have though, anything past that is guesses based on past actions.
For example F-16AJ was an exception made that doesn’t even fit the suggestion standard since it was never prototyped.
So really it’s up to Gaijin to make any final decisions, and while they might have their rules, they are also free to break them and did so in the past.
The AJ is an F-16A MLU with the wrong roundels. So while its one of their stupider recent choices it doesn’t activate the problems that the ‘must have flown and be intended to be armed’ standard is attempting to avoid. Namely weird prototypes with overestimated paper stats.
The vertical tail is cut flat, proving this is a Su30Mkk instead of a J16
The AJ had clear motive, Japanese air hadn’t recieved an update since September 2021, it was March 2023 when they got the AJ, it would have been over 2 years of waiting if they left it until the F-15J, again, I’m not saying it was right to do, but there was a clear reason for it
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