Now.. F-15E

Machinery of War Discussion Aircraft
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I have a question. In War Thunder terms specifically, how is an F/A-18E/F better than an F/A-18C Late, or especially an F/A-18C+ as USMC is upgrading currently?

Some of the big upgrades irl:
40% increase in internal fuel (from around 10,000lbs to around 14,000lbs)
2 additional underwing hardpoints (new hardpoints capable of: AIM-120, AIM-7, AIM-9, AGM-65, AGM-88, Mk82, Mk83, up to 1000lber Paveway)
Two new drop tank capable hardpoints
AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR targeting pod (AIM-120 AMRAAM left cheek station)

Combining the engines:
22,000lbs of thrust dry, 35,500lbs of thrust wet for the Hornet against an MTOW of 51,900lbs
26,000lbs of thrust dry, 44,000lbs of thrust wet for the Rhino against an MTOW of 66,000lbs
TWRs at any given load are almost identical

Early Rhinos had the same AN/APG-73 as the Hornet, and late Hornets (USMC F/A-18C/D+ currently in service) have the same AN/APG-79 AESA radar as the standard Rhinos.
F/A-18C Late already has the LITENING II targeting pod, an equivalent of the AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR. The reason both are in service is that the LITENING II isn’t carrier catapult launch/arrested landing certified on the Hornet. So land based USMC F/A-18C/D squadrons can use the LITENING II without worrying about it. When they go aboard supercarriers, they need an alternate targeting pod.

As I understand it, Rhinos are getting LITENING pods of their own and they don’t have that carrier launch/landing issue as it is integrated fully.

Point is, IRL the big deals were: New airframes!
New radar! (which is now on the in service legacy Hornets)
More internal fuel!

In war thunder terms, the Super Hornets are literally almost identical to F/A-18C Late/F/A-18C+ Laterer

Point is I don’t think they’re an F-15E equivalent, regardless of how this shakes out. They can carry 12 AMRAAM+2 AIM-9, which is significantly better, but they’re actually a little slower than Legacy Hornets. Super Hornets are less dubious IRL but ingame, while they HAVE to come, and I like them, they will not be a major upgrade over F/A-18C Late. F/A-18C+ Laterer will have equivalent performance, with the exception of carrying only TWELVE air to air missiles.

Super Hornet is a perfect Su-30SM equivalent I guess

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Every update the takes get worse holy

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The airframe itself is very different and TW being close doesn’t mean they perform the same. It’s said that F/A-18E can pull AoA 40 deg/s . I don’t think F/A-18C could that much.
1 thing from the top of my head is RWR, they have different.
The other is AIM-174B and AIM-260 JATM (i don’t know if and how they will implement them in game, but it is an option).
In fact , going by pilots, F/A-18E was initially a failure, many teething problems and in fact worse than F-14D in everything. They were disappointed, except for A-G capabilities. When everything settled though and the teething problems got solved , they respected the aircraft.

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A very different jet, but ingame it’ll probably be very similar. I look forward to the air launched SM-6, but 260 JATM is simply too far unknown. There’s one public image of it I’m aware of, and who knows if the render is accurate. Adding 260 will probably be fanfiction for the next several years.

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Swear man all those propaganda videos of how the invincible F15s never got shot down fighting Mi8,Su22/25 and export 29s that sometimes didnt even had ARHs made them US mains actually believe that it was right with basically 0 drag…“let me just pull 12gs at mach and not even lose speed” lmao US main are sure somenthing else…

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no, they have more advanced downsized GaN T/R module version, AN/APG-79v4

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The majority of the “legend” comes from First Gulf War and the majority of “kills” were from AIM-7M/AIM-9M. So it has nothing to do with ARHs. In reality Israel used F-15s for air superiority against Lebanon and Syria in the 80s, again without any ARH , and possible got more kills with it than US.
So the opposition not having ARH missiles is an invalid argument, anyway.
In reality , do we really compare US forces and NATO to the Iraqi ones that period? Or Israel against Syria and Lebanon? It’s not only the planes, it’s the pilots…it’s how they deploy them , under what structure , AWACS etc.
For me is much more objective what the Iranian’s achieved with their air force against Iraq. Way more comparable forces . And not only with F-14s.

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June 2025: F-15C/E need to be 13.0 because it has the same AIM-9M and AIM-120 which are both 13.0 material. F-15A also has AIM-9M with F-15 fuselage, and AIM-120 is the same missile that is used on Harriers.

  • AIM-120 (13.0)
  • F-15 (13.0)
  • AIM-9M (13.0)

/sacastic

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True. Regardless, in WT terms, advanced F/A-18Cs are surprisingly close to Super Hornets in capability

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Once again USA got nerfed to the ground

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0/10 bait

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still no LJDAM outside of hornet and EGBU in general even though we made the damn things. that has to be intentional

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Cope bud

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1/10 bait

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9/11 bait would be asking how much does eggs cost where you live?

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Dramatic Bunny 07032025030603

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Angry skill issue usamain copium

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Sorry if this is going way off topic, but you are massively underselling the main factor regarding the overwhelming success of the Coalition and the IDF, situational awareness.

And I don’t mean just AWACS, those were deffinitively a massive asset, but I think there’s a pretty good argument that close monitoring of the combat area (via spy drones in the Lebanon Conflict and via Satellites in ODS), as well as the degradation of the surveilence system of their opponents (by airstrikes and electronic warfare) played a much bigger role. Both the IDF and the Coalition knew the exact composition of the enemy force and even could monitor when they would launch a sortie (even before AWACS could, btw). In the Lebanon case specifically the terrain made the use of ground based radars by the SyAF almost impossible, which meant that the Syrian CAP and escorts had to rely on their (often heavily jammed, we will get into that) radars to attempt to keep any awareness. The IDF had a good idea of the composition, structure and route that the Syrian strike would take even before they entered AWACS coverage.

Another aspect is that almost all the weapon and sensors used by both Syria and Iraq were heavily compromised. After Egypt orbited towards the USA sphere of influence after the Yom Kippur War they handed over S-125’s, BUK’s and MiG-23MS’s among other equipment to the USA, which quickly informed the IDF about them and developed systems to counter them. The N019 radar on the MiG-29 was famously compromised by Tolkachev’s leaks to the CIA and OFC the USA knew everything they wanted to know about the Mirage F1’s supplied by France.

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I gotta be honest mate, there’s not one singular moment playing F-15I where I have ever felt any of the feelings you’ve expressed.

It absolutely deserves 14.0. If anything, and in an ideal world, it and all it’s 14.0 peers should probably be like 15.0 by now so we can have some actual decompression going on.

My brother, flying this thing is like flying the space shuttle. Slap 20-25 mins of fuel, no drop tanks, and you’re up in low earth orbit slamming AMRAAM’s into peoples foreheads quicker than anything else.

Meh. It’s not just the raw speed itself, but how quickly it can accelerate up to it, maintain it, and at altitude keep gaining it. You can straight up just run away from missiles fired at you. It’s awesome.

Down at low / mid altitude in a turnfight? Ofcourse not. They will completely rinse you, but you never have a reason to put yourself in that situation to begin with. You can dictate the engagement. Embrace your inner Saturn V, go to space, go to mach-holy-jesus, and do what you do best which is BVR joust. Someone fires a missile at you? Crank it, bleed it by flying away from it, turn back in again and rinse and repeat.

I can’t really comment on Su-30, as i’ve not experienced it yet. Maybe just the sheer amount of incomings might play you out the match a bit being constantly defensive, but F-18? You know how slow this thing is? You know how fast you are? You dictate the engagement on your terms.

13.7 is uptiered to 14.0 in like 95% of games anyway. It makes absolutely no difference. The only thing moving it to 14.0 achieved is ensuring 12.7’s no longer ever have the chance to be bullied by it, which was the right thing to do.

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I’m not a USA main (wow shocker)
I’m a Sweden and USSR main lol