Should the YAK-130 be at 9.0?

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
,
1

The short answer, (my answer) is no. The long answer is no because the Yak-130 has capabilities far ahead of other strike aircraft in the BR, that it is an unfair match against contemporary BR SPAA’s, and as a result this is an aircraft which should be considered for reworking either through armament or BR change.

Here are my reasons for thinking so.
First, it is far ahead of other strike aircraft at the BR. I already know the drama wars about the Skyhawk, so I’ll just compare the ordinance of the Yak-130 with other aircraft. The Yak-130 at 9.0-9.3 gets IR guided KAB-500Kr bombs, which in my experience can glide up to 6 km to the target. This is very far ahead of other strike aircraft, as non-MCLOS guided weapons are only available to US strike aircraft at 10.7, German strike aircraft at 11.0-10.0, and British strike aircraft at 10.7-10.3. (MCLOS is not counted because it is extremely inferior to laser and IR guided weaponry. MCLOS puts a large load on the user, more than laser guided weaponry, and IR weapons are much easier as they are simply fire-and-forget.)
The second reason is that the fight between the Yak-130 and contemporary SPAA’s is rather unfair. Through personal experience, i have found that the KAB-500Kr can be effective at about 6 km, in this battle: [Domination #1] Iberian Castle 1 August 2026 - 01:03 Paired with thermals, there is almost no way an SPAA can hope to be in a position to detect and intercept the Yak-130 before the Yak can spot it and send an IR guided bomb from way outside of the SPAA’s effective range.

Examples:
SPAAG’s have a maximum effective range of 2 km, any firing further than that has a very low chance of achieving a hit, and it will alert the Yak to the SPAAG’s presence. XM246 at 8.7, M247 at 9.0, Gepard at 8.3, Type 87 at 8.3, and the PGZ09 at 9.0 are as a result unable to provide fire against the Yak-130 until it is most likely far too late. The M163 Vulcan is the only SPAA the US 8.3 lineup has, and it is hopeless against a full uptier fighting the Yak-130.

SPAA SAM’s are not much better. Imp. Chaparral’s MIM-72 missiles only have a maximum all-aspect lock range of 3.6 km, so the chance of intercepting a Yak-130 before it has released its ordinance is very low. LAV-AD at 10.0, Gepard 1A2 at 9.7, Ozelot at 9.7, and the Stormer-AD at 10.0 all are armed with the FIM-92 Stinger, which has an all-aspect launch range of 6 km. The HN-6 SAM on the PGZ04A (9.3) is comparable in performance to the Stinger. The Roland SAM’s are SACLOS and have a launch range of 6-8 km, so they can be evaded using terrain, something easy for an agile little aircraft like the Yak-130. While all these SAM’s may seem like a fair fight, the Yak-130 is still only at 9.3 and so it will only encounter these in uptiers while still being able to bully at 8.3.

As should hopefully be obvious, the Yak-130 is a very capable aircraft, having IR guided weaponry full BR’s before other nations, and in its current position is ridiculously undertiered for its level of performance. Refer again to the [Domination #1] Iberian Castle
1 August 2026 - 01:03, and you will see that I died four times in quick succession to the Yak-130, all in different places on the map and with no way to defend myself. The only time I ever had a chance to shoot one down was when it went straight over the town for some reason, and after that I was destroyed by one when it was at a distance where I could do nothing to it with my SPAA.

Now with all that said, what should be done about it? Definitely, the Yak-130 needs to be moved up in BR. I know that I am not alone in this opinion. Perhaps it could be moved to 10.7. That is the lowest BR in which American strike aircraft get TV guided weaponry, Germany only seems to get IR weaponry at 12.3, and Britain gets TV guided weapons only at 11.3 on the Hawk 200. In my opinion, the Hawk 200 is a close match to the Yak-130. The best way to balance the Yak-130 might be to give it the R-73 and moving it up to 10.7. The ultimate goal is to preserve fun gameplay while also eliminating the unfair advantages which the Yak-130 creates. In conclusion, it is important that a vehicle is fun to use, but not at the unfair expense of every other vehicle which it faces.

Keep in mind in your comments that I am trying my best to be fair minded in my approach towards the game. Keep the comments and replies respectful.

2

I think adding some flare to bring it to around 9.7–10.3 would work, but the lack of RWR feels a bit like a deal-breaker.

3

Kab-500Krs are TV guided.

Bruh. The A-4Es exist at the same BR in GRB and is better in a few ways. There’s also the Ayit at 10.0 in GRB which is significantly better.

1 Like
4

Yak-130 is being proposed to be moved to battle rating 9.7 in realistic ground battles and battle rating 9.3 in arcade air battles. I’ve proposed to be moved at least to battle rating 10.7 in all modes with the addition of the R-73 air-to-air missiles and countermeasure pods as way to implement the vehicle accurately as possible. I’m using the Su-25BM as comparison for this battle rating placement.

But I doubt that it will be moved that high, it’s more likely to Gaijin add another variant under the name of Late to justify a new vehicle and whatnot, hopefully it’s just moved and the missing features added.

1 Like
5

Its crazy how no one complained endlessly about the A4 until people were spamming the 130s.

Almost like the A4 isn’t as busted for some reason or is just played less. Which… if its played less… its less oppressive and therefore…

6

Just because no one plays it doesn’t mean its not powerful.

It’s almost like the playerbase only cares about vehicles overperforming if they are Russian.

1 Like
7

I said less oppressive. Not powerful. When you have 2-4 130s in a single match its awful.

That doesnt happen with A4s. Also said I dont care if it goes up in BR.

Also nice strawman arguement. Thats not remotely true, yall just flock to those topics like crazy for some reason though.

It’s like no one in this forum is ever capable of accepting that they got something thats a bit imbalanced and deal with that instead of bringing up xyz vehicle is too. Lots of pedantic toddlers arguing on a forum like they’re God’s gift to intelligence.

It’s insane.

8
  1. yak-130 is 9.3 in grb
  2. it doesn’t have flares, this is important as it highly reduces the options you have
  3. the kab-500kr’s have an effective tracking range of like… 3 kilometers. You have to get well within the enemy’s SPAA to drop on a target with tracking. You can drop from further out if all you care about is hitting a spot on the ground