I know there are a few posts like this already but here I am with some sources.
Currently Russia’s aircraft lineup is capable but full of compromises compared to other nations. (The same can be said to Sweden but thats another topic for another day)
The Mig-29SMT with its good radar but abysmal acceleration and speed bleed in turns compared.
The SU-27SM with its decent flight performance and payload but abysmal radar.
The SU-34 with its good radar but no HMD.
The addition of the SU-30SM hopefully fills out this issue but it is currently (in my opinion) not yet as satisfying. At 14.0, the apex predator there should have little to no compromises.
With the AL-31FP, the SU-30SM is so underpowered that it kinda minus out the advantages it has from thrust vectoring and its massive weapons payload. Currently it has kinda equal or worse flight performance than the Mig-29SMT at most flight envelope (not counting the thrust vectoring shenanigans at super low speeds) according to StatShark.
The AL-41 should help reduce the gap of performance with the other top dogs.
This is a rough calculation from another post in favor of allowing the AL-41 on the SU-30SM. There is no duct thrust reduction because I do not know Gaijin’s formulae. So this is calculated at unmounted thrust.:
SU-30SM - 18,400kg - AL-31FP at 245.2kN (122.6 x 2) = TWR 1.36 (with 50% fuel TWR drops to 1.08)
SU-30SM - 18,400kg - AL-41 at 284.4kN (142.2 x 2) = TWR of 1.58 (with 50% fuel TWR drops to 1.25)
F-15E - 15,120kg - PW-229 at 259.4kN (129.7 x 2) = TWR 1.75 (with 50% fuel TWR drops to 1.15)
EFT FGR4 - 11,220kg - Eurojet 200 at 180kN (90 x 2) = TWR 1.64 (with 50% fuel TWR drops to 1.24)
As you can see, even with the AL-41, the SU-30SM will still have a lesser thrust to weight than the top 14.0 dogs. So it is still a compromise compared to the other jets. The flanker line have serious drag issue.
Should Gaijin decide that it is underpowered for its BR, here are the sources that mentions the refitting of the regular SU-30SM with the AL-41 engines: Plans of upgrades & orders
Already Upgraded
Gaijin is known to add “possible” modifications and Frankenstein variants of aircraft so I think its possible for them to justify adding the new engine if they see fit. Should I make a bug report?
As a disclaimer I have USA, Germany, and USSR air tree grinded out. So I also fly the EF-2000, F16s, F15s, SU-27s and Mig29s.
If anyone has more sources please feel free to comment! I am a new user so I can only post 2 sources.
Honestly? They could mishmash it but I see no reason for this atm
Yes, engines are underpowered for its weight but this leaves room for a future SM2 jet which is slightly different from the one we have in-game: different avionics, radar, uniquely the only Su-30SM variant to carry up to 2 R-37M and obviously, stronger engines to compensate for those 2 heavier missiles.
I could be wrong, and maybe they skip the whole SM2 thing and mishmash or skip to the Su-35. I personally don’t think it’s much of a problem with the current Su-30SM tbh
SM2 would be redundant once Su-35 gets added, and I really see no reason to add the SM2 before the 35 anyways. Since the next step in most things are Gripen E, F-15SA or EX or whatever, Tranche 4 EFTs with Captor-E and proper AGMs, No idea for the Rafale tbh, J-16 for China
It’ll probably happen in a couple months after a certain nation who requires constant handholding stops just blatantly complaining that it’s “op” and the stats show it still is subpar compared to every other 14.0 in terms of stats.
Or it’ll compete just fine and they will add the sm2 with this engine later
I agree that by the time the SM2 gets added after the SU-35 it would be too late.
It would be facing future higher BR such as stealth fighters, by then the AL-41 would be too late to make a difference since it would be more of a battle of sensors, stealth, and missile ranges.
Pretty much every jet at 14.0 has compromises, sure the su30 isnt as fast as an f15E or Eurofighter but but has a better radar than both while having the best missile loadout at 14.0 while outperforming the F15E pretty easily at close range combat and lets not even talk about the Rafale, the su30 is slower than the others but thats literally just 1 weakness.
considering the r77-1 only has slightly less range than the aim120 while having significantly more of then its legit the best missile loadout in the game. 40km shots arnt killing anyone who knows how to play the game.
It’s still a draggy af missile though. So even under 40km shots would be a struggle. Besides, they can always remove the double racks and force non-use of the wingtip pylon to balance things out
it being more draggy is why i say slightly less range cause in a strait line its time to target is faster so if you adjust for drag and turning its still only slightly less range. its not like i want the pilons removed im just saying every jet has compromises and advantages and that the su30 is fine.
The drag cause it to lose a lot more speed than aim-120 against a notching target. But it is still an upgrade over the base 77 though
Anyways, 30SM comes with lots of compromises already. Bad turn rate, bad engines, large rwr blind spot (blame how bad russian microchips are), heavy as heck, tvc gimmick that’s way more dangerous to practically use
I’m with you, I absolutely adore the russian airframes, however there is a reality that is present in them: these airframes are transitionary from a country that literally collapsed. So due to economic reasons a lot of them did make compromises IRL, and gaijin is running out of things to add so they are trying to spread it all out.
But at least there are sources supporting what we want, so it’s definitely possible gaijin will throw us the bone with these engines if it isn’t competitive enough. But maybe it’s fine as is and isn’t compromising as much as we think it is.
It retains energy better than the flankers, it has superior missiles, it has better turn rate than the 30SM at certain SEPs, it also has a smaller blind spot compared to the L-150 (limited to +/- 30 degrees, while F-15E is like +/-45).
The Su-30SM as it stands in the dev server is F-15 equivalent.
It’s slower to accelerate, similar to Mirage 2000 vs F-16C.
However, the Su-30SM has equivalent general flight performance to the F-15, similar to Mirage 2000 vs F-16C.
Su-30SM as it stands on dev server is a perfectly fine 14.0 aircraft.
If the 15E could get its 229 engines shortly after introduction (which made it so meta that the BR cap had to be raised and is still highly compressed), then the 30SM can get its AL-41s.
Idgaf about Frankenstein models and blocks anymore, since clearly the Snail doesn’t either.