Strikemaster Mk.88 BR is to low

So the Strikemaster is lower than Sk60 but both are being comperable exept that it has 7.62mm instead of 30mm but it has bombs why is that, because of premium or something else. In my opinion (which isn’t important i guess) it should be at 7.0 same as Sk60.

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There’s a big difference between 7.62 an 30mm

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Same as there is a big difference between bombs and no bombs and few rockets and a lot of rockets.

It trades air to air for ground

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The 30mm ADEN is amazing for either anti aircraft or anti ground. Amazing guns at its BR for gunning down lighter vehicles in GRB. The SK60 also has access to having 2 engines (backup engine has saved me many times) and the SK60 also has the RB05 for anti ground and also good for air to air if you get used to it.

Basically, the SK60 is superior in a lot of areas, areas which are very important for the BR difference. The Strikemaster has the ability to… carry 4x 500lb bombs and some rockets. A lot of the time I can manage 4+ kills just with the gunpods for the SK60.

Like, the strikemaster offers the UK a really good ground attack option, but the SK60 is superior in a lot of aspects still.

Also, is it tomorrow you can buy levels in the BP? Or Thursday?

I have to ask, why 7.0 because it can carry 4 500lb bombs? So many other ground attack CAS have way better weapons options at the same BR.

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Sk60 has:
image
image image
Sk60 has 30mm, some 500mm rockets and also Guided Rockets

Strikemaster has:
image

Let’s compare to other 7.0s
image A2D has:
image

image F3D has:
image

both have 20mm cannons and can reach speeds over 800 km/h

Now compared to other aircraft around the same BR:

image Arado B2 (6.3 br)
image
Has bomber sight for extra crispy precise bomb drops

image F8F-1B (6.3 br)
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A fighter but has equivalent strike firepower

image French F4U-7 (6.0 br)
image

image French AD-4 (6.0 br)
image

From the looks of it Strikemaster has less ordinance firepower compared to others, and also don’t expect to get kills with those peashooter machineguns…

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It’s called Strikemaster though, so it sounds scary.

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IKR. It is interesting how people have said it should go up 2 points in BR, and I have also seen people say drop 2 points too xD

It feels a lot like when the SK60 got added ha.

7.0 mostly because 5.3 pistons from ww2 will see this thing from the cold war, and secondly it’s comperable to sk60 but different type of strategy shouldn’t influence battle ratings.

Strategy involves the weapons it carries and those effect br so its fine where it is

It’s a pimped version of a jet trainer which in turn is a pimped version of a PISTON trainer…

= )

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Sk60 is also a trainer

strategy is the same with unguided rockets mostly talking about ground pounding in mixed battles and surely you can get few kills with gunpods in air RB

I’m not focusing on the fact that it’s a trainer, but that it was developed from a piston aircraft transformed into a jet, transformed some more into a light attack aircraft.

Compared to that the 105 which was a jet from the beginning.

Same time roughly, yes, but vastly different performances, with the 105 being 200km/h faster…

i’m not compering it to the 105G which is 200km/h faster but to Sk60 which has less powerful engines and it’s about the same in speed

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The armament is the single biggest problem with it. It is by far the most weakly armed aircraft anywhere near that tier. There are several reserve tier biplanes with better firepower. It’s not just the caliber and the number of guns, the only belt you get is T/AP/AP. That’s all you get. Every try killing something with the Japanese 7.7s? Now imagine you’re up against super props and early jets with that weapon load.

You will require so much trigger time on someone to actually get a kill, which is a big issue with this plane due to it’s poor acceleration and speed bleed in turns. Sticking to someone to get the kill (Assuming you even can stick with them in turns) is going to bleed so much speed you’re going to be a sitting duck for the next few players. Using your one big advantage and keeping your speed in BnZ attacks isn’t going to get you enough trigger time to actually hurt anything.

Even bringing the gunpods gets you less firepower than the Typhoon Mk Ia at 3.0. Substantially worse, because even that thing’s tickle guns actually have API ammo in their belts for a small chance of causing a fire.

This isn’t going to be an He-100 level problem, where the bad armament allows a plane with completely ridiculous performance to be placed way too low. The performance is already pretty mid for 6.3, most super props are going to roll over it, and the first gen jets will absolutely destroy it. It might be problematic to catch for planes in downtiers, but that’s not going to let it do a whole lot. Even for CAS in GRB, I’d take an Arado or Bearcat over it any day of the week.

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There is a relatively easy solution to the lack of armament options: late service RNZAF weapons.

Simply put, the Strikemaster also carried 6-shot CRV7 pods once they replaced the Mighty Mouse in RNZAF service (around the early-mid 1980s), and was also capable of carrying the 19-shot versions of both the Mighty Mouse and CRV7 pods.

Add the two types of CRV7 pod, the 19-shot Mighty Mouse pod, and the Mk 81 in both LDGP and Snakeeye configuration (the Mk 88 carried both as well), and that would solve at least some issues.

At first I thought you were going to say give it the AIM-9Gs lmao.

TBH I dont think the lighter bombs would really help it, 500s are rough to use a lot of the time on tier, higher up with faster targets and a smaller bomb will not be that much a change.

CRV7 might be good, though it already has snebs and T-80s.

Schindibee:
It’s a pimped version of a jet trainer which in turn is a pimped version of a PISTON trainer…

:D

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Well, after a day of using the strikemaster, I have to return and say, I think its pretty fine as it is. At least in GRB as I have not been brave enough to use it in Air RB.

On to the main things for it, when ground pounding it can be a lovely dream of a plane or a nightmare, it massively depends on 1, key issue. Do the enemy have a single plane in the air?

If no, you can bomb and rocket away, if they do… you have a few options.

  1. die
  2. dump all your weapons and try to fight them to the death. If theres 2 of them GL with that.
  3. fly around the edge of your airfield and hope SPAA drop them.

I have never felt this issue so strongly as I do with the strikemaster, even with completely unarmed planes like a full ground attack 105G or buccaneer, I still feel safe enough to go in for a bomb strike. I do not feel such for the strikemaster. You simply do not have the speed or energy retention to be able to think about ground attack while an enemy plane can potentially intercept you (note: POTENTIALLY, if you ignore them, they will get a massive advantage on you).

If its BR goes up, you will make it see superior planes at a higher rate and of course, the dreaded 7.7 uptiers over and over facing significantly better SPAA and enemy jets.

Sure, I have had some good rounds with it

Spoiler

this is more so due to the luck of not having an enemy attempting to interdict me, if there are enemies doing that, my ground attack drops massively, in a conventional plane for the BR I would go for a fight with them first and only drop if I need to, but you cant in the strikemaster.

https://warthunder.com/en/tournament/replay/140352242676067327

Replay for the latter game btw. Its pretty obvious to me everything I did I could do in another plane, but would have to get more bombs a lot sooner, the only real advantage is having 4 bomb drops over 3 of the Wyvern or 1-2 for other planes in the Tree.

In summery, the Kiwi is just a fun plane, its good if there isnt a predator and lives up to the national animal on the emblem, and in closing;

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