I mean, I guess that’s true. Actually the only valid point so far, and I hate that it’s true. I’m just sad because these are so cool…
But even then a Mirage 2000C would be the most viable option… The LF.1 has no gun, the 2000-5B has no gun, and the F1EM would be one of these weird cases of overtiered airframes without undertiered weapons, so not very viable for premium.
And a Mirage 2000C would only be 12.3, Gaijin wants a 13.x so an F-16AM is the best solution for that
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you know what, as a controversial and blasphemous as it is to say.
if getting a copypaste gold F-16AM now, means less likelihood of a interesting or unique french bird (or variant thereof) gettting paywalled, evented or green’d, in the future…
…i’ll take it.
it’s still baffling that france would now have more F16s than the US tree, but i’d rather an F16 get paywalled than something i’d love to research.
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Finally someone gets it
Anyway I don’t think France has any 13.x as viable to offer as a premium
I agree. I’d rather have copy paste premiums than unique stuff locked behind a pay wall. Of course a copy paste of a French aircraft here would have been ideal, but I’m not upset about this at all.
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Yeah, all the people supporting unique vehicles as premiums are the very reason Gaijin dared to make the F-14D a premium. Even all the ones whining, half of them will buy the F-14D pack
between upgraded Mirages and downgraded Rafales, it has a few to chose from…
…but again, i’d rather reserach those
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Which ones specifically? pre-MICA Mirages are all 12.x worthy at max afaik, post MICA ones are either 14.0 worthy or have no gun (questionable for a premium). And the lowest Rafale I could see that would be viable (with gun) would be regular F1 standard, so 14.0 minimum with 6 MICA. I really don’t see what we could have between 13.0 and 13.7 with a gun
i’ve seen some ask for the Rafale M.F1 or C.01 to be the premium, which i disagree with because its an iconic piece as the very first rafales.
i’ve seen some ask for the Mirage MF.2000 / F1EM to be the premium, which i disagree with because france could easily have an entire Mirage F1 line, with the F1A or B, F1EQ and F1EM, pending some rearrangment. (with still a few variants to sacrifice to the snail)
i suppose a late Mirage 2000 could’ve made the cut, specially if they felt like undertiering a 2000-5 copy, but again, that’d be one less dorito for the Mirage 3/2k line.
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People would buy it if it were in the US tree. People who play France wants to, you know, play French vehicles.
They sort of did, just in a roundabout “balance by statistics” kind of way.
Continuing the discussion from Updated Planned Battle Rating Changes (April 2026):
Or they could’ve given the French tree a French vehicle. People wouldn’t have cared if it had been a Mirage F1C-200 situation.
And I just want to point out that the last 3 premiums for the French air tree aren’t French: This new Belgian F-16, the Dutch NF-5A and Seahawk.
It absolutely won’t prevent it. Just look at the F-14D. And look at the last premiums added to the French air tree: A Dutch NF-5A and Seahawk. Since then, has the French tree gotten better in terms of indigenous designs to you?
Again, the modified Indian Mirage 2000H capable of carrying LGBs would’ve been a perfect candidate. France has the Mirage 2000C-S5 (and S4 if you did the event/bought it) for air and the 2000D for CAS, so it wouldn’t fill a gap in the tree and the twin seater variant can go to the UK tree (or vice versa) since India is sort of a subtree to the UK.
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and Benelux vehicles because you know they are a subtree and this F-16 is a Belgium plane
yea because of the stats not because they want the new players have a better experience
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Very disappointed by another awful minor nation choice.
Last we needed was another F-16/American premium plane as the top premium in the France tree.
Sure Benelux is there, but we’ll represented.
They just want to sell the premium Su30s because everyone knows it’s overpowered
When a large part of your active community asks you to upgrade it to BR 13.7 but you refuse because the plane sells too well, that’s bullshit.
And we see the Russian/Chinese favoritism when the F-14D isn’t even allowed the Aim9M and Aim120A.
Especially since the F-16AM could be rated at 13.3, as it’s simply inferior to the premium Su-30
Okay, but he could have just taken the time to make a Dutch variant and not just a copy of the F-16AM from the tech tree.
It’s not like Belgium is neglected in the land tech tree and vice versa for the air tech tree; The Netherlands has virtually no top-tier aircraft; even skins are rare.
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Personally, I hope Belgian F-16AM MLU from premium pack is M2 Tape standard in 2002
Remove JHMCS, JDAM series and GBU-39 SDB. but downgrade targeting pod to LANTIRN AN/AAQ-14 Sharpshooter
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The problem, as Smin1080p_WT mentioned (I might be misrepresenting what you said, and I apologize), is that Gaijin wants aircraft with a Battle Rating (BR) of 13.0 to 13.7. However, France has nothing to offer in that BR range.
Any aircraft equipped with the MICA missile can reach BR 14.0 or higher, while others will be limited to 13.0. Frankly, the Mirage 4000 has no business being at 13.0, especially with this update that brings even more aircraft equipped with Fox 3 ARH missiles to that level.
It is therefore crucial to find a competitive French aircraft with a combat rating (BR) between 13.0 and 13.7, without MICA missiles, and equipped with long-range missiles superior to those of the 530D. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exist unless Gaijin decides to add an aircraft with a maximum of 2 to 4 MICA missiles. So the Benelux solution is the most logical, even if, damn it, they could have just avoided a copy-paste approach.
Currently, France has no aircraft with a configuration other than the Magic 2 MICA or the Magic 2, and the 530D.
Furthermore, an aircraft with a strong close air support (CAS) rating, capable of performing well in both air and ground combat, must be proposed.
I agree, but it would be good to then stupidly modernize (JHMCS etc) the AM of the tree to make it more competitive in top tier
Even the pre-MLU Belgian F-16A managed to be given JDAM somehow.
So I don’t think it’d be possible for them to consider an F-16AM without JDAM until they get a more solid grasp on the timeline of Belgium’s F-16 upgrades.
But yeah, I support the same idea of date-locking the premium one to a downgraded standard, especially if the TT F-16AM gets some more recent upgrades to give the two planes more distinct character.
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M2 Tape (early 2000’s) and M3 Tape (2004) pre JDAM
I might not problem premium pack just 1.5 gen targeting pod limit LANTIRN AN/AAQ-14 Sharpshooter pod
It’s premium pack is M2 Tape standard
Not issue battle rating for Air battle mode limited 13.3
And that’s why I’m really perplexed why Gaijin didn’t at least try to make it a variant for the other BeNeLux nation, the Netherlands.
Then you wouldn’t even need to bring up date-locking the premium at all, since both Belgium’s and the Netherlands’ F-16s are distinct enough that, in my opinion, the premium wouldn’t just be a copy-paste of the tech tree model, and the Netherlands would’ve finally gotten their MLU variant.
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Agree. I was expecting it to be Dutch to be honest. Bit sad it was not French, but figured surely they won’t copy paste an identical plane when the Dutch kinda lack representation at higher tier.
Nope Belgian. Exactly the same.
Why … Dutch F16 is right there, atleast differentiate.
What about mirage 4000? It fits the description just as well.