Air RB is a gamemode about air combat, it’s for fighters - not attackers. The fighters ALWAYS get to the bases first, for the Strike Aircraft to get them they’ll have to sit on their ass for 5 minutes waiting for them to respawn - or to gamble on a suicide run to them. Though there are 4 bases to bomb - once the fighters are done with them, there’s maybe 2 still left if you’re really lucky. Also hope there are no other strike aircraft on your team gunning ahead of you to those bases, if you lose that race then you’re either forced to wait for 5 minutes for those bases to respawn - in which case, you could literally just have not taken off and sat AFK at the airfield for the first 6 minutes of the game… Or, you’re going to go try your luck in air combat in your mobile truck. Barrel in mouth, that is not enjoyable gameplay.
I doubt they’re going to change Air RB, they’ve needed to now for years. Maybe they’re coming around to that idea, but I’m not counting on it. Yes in Simulator, strike aircraft are fine, but in Air RB as the gamemode is currently, they are absolutely not. Sim with realistic controls or Air RB EC - I dream of gamemodes like that because Air RB is pure suffering for strike aircraft. I want to play Sim to get an experience more fun, but I cannot and will not because I do not have a joystick. Having a joystick and learning Sim also just shouldn’t be a requirement in the first place to have fun with strike aircraft.
Yes every nation has strike aircraft, but none others so disproportionately as Britain at the later BRs even if you include the minor nations. Between 9.7 to 13.0 in Rank VII, Britain has 2 identical tech tree F-4 Phantoms, and 4 tech tree strike aircraft.
F-111C at 11.7 is simply too high. It gets MAWS and 6 AIM-9Ls, otherwise she’s outperformed in basically every other metric by nigh every other aircraft she meets at her BR. I’d prefer the 11.0 Sea Harrier FRS.1 over the F-111C. That Sea Harrier only has 4 AIM-9Ls and far fewer countermeasures, but she can perform well because she has the acceleration and ability to get into positions where the Aardvark just cannot. She also has the ability to defend herself with manoeuvres, whereas with the Aardvark she loses all her speed in a single turn. Aardvarks AIM-9Ls are good missiles, but she cannot get into position to use them well at all. Everything she faces at 11.7 gets an abundance of flares, meaning the only way for her to get missile kills is to catch a target off guard. That’s just not possible with the F-111C, because she doesn’t have the speed or the acceleration or the mobility to get into position where she can exploit her missiles.
Tornado GR.1 at 11.7 is simply too high. She’s 0.3BR higher than the 11.3BR German marketplace tornado solely because she gets guided bombs - in a gamemode where guided bombs are useless. She is 0.3BR lower than the Tornado F.3, which can get in one loadout 4 Aim-9Ls, and 4 excellent Skyflashes, plus a functioning radar, plus I believe - better flight performance. Tornado GR.1 gets 2 Aim-9Ls and no radar. At 11.0 with 2 Aim-9Ls and her bus of a flight model, she would not be overly strong at all. At 11.0 is the Mig-21 Lazur-M and Su-22M4 - they get 6x R60MKs.
Buccaneer S2B at 10.7 is simply too high. The A-10A at 10.3 gets 2 Aim-9Ls plus the GAU-8. Buccaneer gets 2 Aim-9Ls offensively and that’s literally it. She’s faster than the A-10A sure, but she also turns worse, is an easier target, has considerably less countermeasures, she literally has no guns, and is still absolutely hopeless if it is pursued by a fighter with flares. You may be right in posing that 9.7 is too low, but at least it should be 10.3 matching the A-10A. She literally only has her two AIM-9Ls, she has no guns.
Buccaneer S2 at 9.3 is simply too high. Compared to say the 8.3 F9F-8, yes she gets countermeasures and is faster… In exchange, she is considerably worse at turning, she literally has no guns, and she only gets 2x Aim-9Bs as her only armament. That’s versus the F9F-8 which gets 4x Aim-9Bs and 4x 20mm cannons. Hell, even 8.3 might be too high for her - she literally has no guns and she only gets 2x Aim-9Bs for air combat.
On your other points, I made it a principal not to recommend buffs or aircraft changes and purely suggested changes to aircrafts BRs based on their current in-game performance. Note that instead of increasing strike jets BRs based on their bomb load or A2G arsenal, I determined their Air RB BRs chiefly based on their air combat performance and also, the ease at which they are intercepted by enemy aircraft. On the Jaguar GR.1/1A and the Harrier GR.3, those are good points. Otherwise, still I believe that the Canberra Mk.2 and Mk.6 could benefit greatly from a slight decrease in BR, as could the early British jets. On BR compression being a problem, that is very true.
