Actually, looking at the history of Indonesias Rafales, there wasn’t even a need for Malaysia at all.
Indonesia received their first Rafales in November last year.
Japan could have gotten a better A-4 through Indonesia and both a Su-30MK2 (and/or Su-27SKM) and the Avon Sabre as well.
Just my 5 cents: I’d say JP would need sub-trees anyway even if there was at least 1 Japanese CAS plane at every rank VII-IX. Looking at the situation with upper-rank ground and air suggestions, JP has little really unique designs left to fill them. There are still a handful of lower-rank vehicles to add, but realisticaly, if JP received like 2 unique vehicles (not naval) per update w/out sub-trees, there would be no more unique additions for JP left in like 1.5 years. Otherwise we would get a 10th prototype of Type 16 that has a chair moved 1 inch closer to the left or F-2 with 0.02mm smaller wing span and be it called unique vehicles (/s).
So sub-trees also allow to fill TT in long run, while also giving more room for sub-trees to be represented (like the pace at which JP’s subs are represented is much faster than that of Finland in Swedish TT whose last Finnish vehicle was event CT-CV like a year or 2 ago?)
EDIT: nah, there was a Finnish Hornet, but like c’mon
Yeah without subs Japan would be boring tbh Thailand got CAS and Malaysia & Indonesia got rank IX’s without them Japan would be rough to play
Wish the additions were actually polished enough, like A-4PTM still missing [crucial] things so people would stop labeling things C&P while some things are not really them (just because they have a familiar indexation in the name)
As well as Thai F-16 being wrong, MiG-29N missing AIM-9L/M… and many other vehicles from other sub-trees
You’re right, currently the A-4PTM is worse than copy-paste, as it lacks the one thing that could make it useful:
Guided A2G weapons
The Indonesian A-4E would have been a better addition, if they won’t give the PTM Bullpups
I was somewhat expecting them to go for a three nation solution because that’s what the initial leak said, but Malaysia was very unexpected. I was personally expecting the Philippines instead, with a far more solid connection to Japan.
If I had to guess why it’s Malaysia, I’d say they probably wanted a top tier aircraft at a time when the Indonesian Rafale wasn’t delivered yet, so the Su-30MKM seemed like their only option.
I also think the Philippines would be a great help for a Korean tree to make sure it isn’t just half a tree when it comes, so maybe this was a consideration as well where Malaysia can’t do much with their very top heavy BR distribution and generally low number of options*
The addition has grown on me though. Especially with Malaysia having a very unique approach to military vehicles that I can only hope we will see that properly represented in game at some point.
Mercedes GD290 mounted with Metis-M ATGM, and equipped with a 360° smoke launcher setup that can be found on most Malaysian ground vehicles.
FV101 Scorpion prototype upgraded by Malaysian KSSB (in cooperation with Thai Chaiseri), featuring a new 215hp diesel engine and Oerlikon 20mm cannon.
PT-91M equipped with thermal camo netting. I know PT-91M is well known, but this camo netting is not.
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The thing is, the first Indonesian Rafales were delivered in November 2025, the update that added Malaysia was the December update of 2025
The Korean tree would likely have the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos if I were to bet
I’ve seen people mostly think they would likely go to Chinese TT (with its exports to those countries)
Interesting how we haven’t seen more Vietnamese vehicles… Wasn’t T-34 SPAA the last Vietnamese vehicle added on behalf of Vietnam?
Would be great to finally see them settled somewhere, I want the modernized PT-76-like, BMP-1-like and T-54Ms be there
Yeah, it’s more of a guess from me. Though I remember some statement about them planning a year ahead, which would again line up with a time of no Indonesian Rafale existing.
Either that or they might not have wanted a Rafale F.4 yet, which would be slightly better than the current F.3R
I mean, they were pretty quick to add the OSA to Britain, it’s just a camo change after all lol
There is so little difference between the Rafale variants, that they might as well rename the Fr*nch ones, but yeah, that’s definitely a possibility
The Kim Qui boat was the last Vietnamese (operated) vehicle they added, though that’s a South Vietnamese one
As for why there aren’t more of them?
There probably was no reason to add more of them.
really hoping we get drop tanks for the F-104 series soon
I think the Rafale F3s are going ot keep their current loadouts (alongside M-Scan Typhoons)
With the Rafale F4s coming with MICA IR and/or Meteors (Likewise with the AESA Typhoons getting them/equivalent)
What if F3/3R get Meteor and Mica IR too, but F4 also get Mica NG IR/EM?
the MICA NG isnt even in service
smin, I want to ask if Gaijin has plans to refine the in-game respawn point calculation mechanism. For example, an aircraft equipped with one AGM-65G having the same respawn points as an aircraft equipped with four AGM-65Gs seems very crude, especially now that the respawn points for aircraft have generally increased.
The Korean tree might benefit from a Phillippine air tree if you guys really want a fourth line. They also have naval cooperation history with Korea so their vehicles not wasted in Japanese tree is fine.
I would like an F-8H and Gaijin is not going to give that in the close future so I would like a one vehicle sub tree similar to India (before this update)
Nothing unusual about F3 Rafale getting Meteor + MICA IR, just need to bump up the BR (again)
F4 could technically get the NG, it’s essentially a dual-pulse MICA with better seekers.
(‘Better’ is doing a lot of work here, can’t really quantify performance of such technologies (IIR seekers; AESA seekers are a different story) without proof, which won’t be available for some time. I hope Gaijin just does what they did with the modern ARH and gives everyone the same seeker. The differentiator will ultimately be missile FM which would naturally make the MICA NG and its ancestor one of the strongest in terms of effective range + manoeuvrability)
Hasn’t stopped Gaijin before
(Looking at you, SPICE-250 on Eurofighters)
I’m honestly not very interested in the addition of any new nations. I mean we already have a contest between 10 nations about who is going to get new toys and some end up with only one-two old models clones or without anything at all. While to research everything in all 10 nations you have to put an insane amount of time into the game.
