In the game, many aircraft lacking countermeasures or equipped with inadequate RWR remain at battle ratings unsuited to their capabilities. For instance:
The Soviet MiG-23M and Su-22M3, as well as the German and Hungarian MiG-23MF, possess only 12 flares yet sit at BR 11.0.
The Japanese F-104J has no countermeasures at all but remains at BR 10.3.
The Chinese F-104G, also completely lacking countermeasures, is placed even higher at BR 10.7.
These aircraft lack basic survivability features and should receive battle rating adjustments similar to those applied to the J35XS.
For the Su-22M3 and MiG-23M/MF: Either remove access to the R-60M missile and lower their BR, or simply reduce their BR directly.
For the F-104J: Remove certain missile loadouts and lower its BR accordingly.
For the Chinese F-104G: Directly downgrade it to BR 10.0.
Additionally, F-104S.ASA suffer from ineffective RWR systems which can only make noise. At its current high BR of 11.7, this effectively renders the aircraft equivalent to having no RWR at all. It should therefore be lowered to BR 11.3.
To be honest, I think the best change would just be to give them more countermeasures.
Is it historical? No. Will it help with the balance and make some of these planes actually usable? Yes. Sometimes you have to sacrifice historical accuracy for gameplay balancing.
I think this is a case where these can be rebalanced by adding more countermeasures. The Chinese F104G with countermeasures is not going to break the meta.
I don’t think lowering them is a good solution. Our current problem of BR compression will just be enhanced by lowering more plane like this.
12 Flares is arguably completely fine on the 11.0 m23. Agreed on the f104j, it could probably be fine at 10.0, and yeah same with china f104g. Asa should get its historical jammer and stay at its rating; it’d be cool as one of the lowest tier fighters with jamming.