Im curious how the F-18C (1994) performs compared to the best Early F18
Do you know why I have a 2.2 kills per battle ratio with the Mirage 2000 S4? Because I never engage F/A-18s below Mach 1, and I never dogfight opponents that are more maneuverable.
Your skills seem quite similar to mine, so here’s my question for you: if you were flying the Mirage 2000 S4, is there any way an F/A-18A could realistically get a kill on you if you never enter a turn fight with it?
You’re faster, you have better Fox-1 capability (you don’t get out-rolled). Is there any reason you should be shot down by an F/A-18A if you don’t make a mistake?
Most players in Air RB play it the wrong way when they rush into a furball with poor situational awareness and get stuck there. No matter how strong the aircraft is, you should try the F/A-18A yourself, and then you’ll realize that most of your kills come from other players’ mistakes, even though they clearly had much better options available.
Six AIM-9Ls and two Magic 2s — which one is better is very situational. For example, if you’re behind a MiG-23ML at 1.5 km and he knows you’re there, six AIM-9Ls are completely useless, but the Magic 2s would be a very different story.
Matra 530Ds are not superior but they are “better” because they cant be out roll.
true, but when being a third party player, keeping your speed and diving down on the 4/5 low skill people trying to jump on the same poor attacker,… having 6 AIM-9L is a joy: often 3/4 hits, even from 3.5km away,…
my record kill range kill on AIM-9L being a 7.5km distance traveled (yeah, traveled!) on a MiG-23 that had no idea. launched from an higher altitude and high energy state to a MiG-23 Afterburning (while he was shooting down a Harrier if i recall correctly).
also,… under 1km separation range, AIM-9L sometimes can be diverted by flares, and regain track on the ennemy (if he keeps afterburning).
so,… i agree to you : those missiles are situationnal,…
yet, having more means more chances to do more kills, and this is quite undeniable ^^"
that’s sadly the average level of gameplay proposed by community.
same is true with MANY MiG-25’s players or any other kinds (like F-15A to E, without forgetting C and C GE, or J and J(MSIP) and any other F-15’s)
i’m trying to reach for it,… slowly i admit.
but i like aircraft able to surprise their ennemy, and F/A-18A seems to be one in many aspects.
in another kind of surprise: F-86F-40 is a surprise to any Supersonic aicraft you encounter at it’s BR (hence why MiG-21F-13 still are falling in BR,…) - but that’s another story.
Having an ennemy doing a mistake is something i often try to force on them,…
F-104’s that shouldn’t turns with a F-86F40, suddenly finding themselves in a rolling scissor, or with me right in their tail - easy
Early MiG-21’s being out-rated by a F-86F40 - really often
being slow or having less engine power doesn’t mean you can’t beat your ennemy.
Of course, if you do not engage your ennemy in a turnfight, it is possible to reduce the amount of mistakes,… but it’s not “100% Sure”
Mirage 2000C S4 (and S5-2) might be the closest aircrafts to the F/A-18A at 12.3.
but you’ve said it yourself:
meanning it have enough capability to win over your Mirage in turnfight configuration.
which is going to be, for War Thunder average player, a “forced move”,…
hopefully today, those same players are in both side, so the game remains somehow balanced most of the time.
YET,… with current ways Gaijin have made BR previously to the last 2 years of bullshit BR (premium/non-premium/event), the F/A-18A doesn’t belong to 12.3, but to 12.7.
gimme a plane in the game,… i won’t go through 2650 docs about F/A-18C of 1994 if it have no interest for the game,…
there is a F-18C Early (premium) in the game at 12.7BR, which should be similar to the 1994 F-18C you’re looking at.
you can then compare directly to Mirage 2000C S4 and F/A-18A, thanks to StatShark - See All Player, Missile, and Vehicle Statistics
As it seems right now, F/A-18C early and F/A-18A share the same exact Flight model, while the F/A-18C Late (14.0 BR) does only get better engines (better time to speed), and more mass(slightly less instantaneous turnrate performances / slightly better sustained turnrate / slightly reduced AoA), while sharing the same Drag/Lift coefficients
Finnish F-18C not the MLU the F-18C
Finland F-18C compared to F/A-18A:
Faster (both acceleration and max-speed)
Same Lift/Drag Coefficients (similar to any F-18C / F-18A)
Turn better (turn radius, instantaneous and sustained) but a slightly tiny differences in AoA in favor of F/A-18A (so tiny in fact, that you won’t feel it in game)
thanks to better engines despite more mass, and it have clearly way more and advanced weapons, aswell as avionics. - if you were finding a way to get the finnish F-18C a better BR → not possible!
Huh BR? I dont care about that i was just curious about its flight performance as its the most lightweight of the F-18Cs at 14.0 by about 440kg
I mean sure its the worst 14.0 but idc was just curious about the flight performance compared to the A model
The F2-ADTW should be receiving the AAM4s since it has them irl. The airplane is a test platform for new tech, in real life it might even carry more modern and sophisticated tech, but it|s clear this company favoritizes Russian vehicles over any.
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