To my knowledge, the low drag pylon does not allow wingtip AIM-120s, unless you have a picture you would like to share of this.
Here a photo of an interesting loadout of a Swiss Hornet (photo shared with explicit permission of the photographer, Marc Wenger):
The aircraft is shown here on Airbase Meiringen during a repetition course in 2022, armed with:
- AIM-9X on the wingtips
- single AIM-120B’s on the low drag pylons
- twin AIM-120C’s on dual launchers on “normal” pylons (note cropped tailfins of the 120C compared to the 120B…)
- single fuel tank on centerline pylon
AIM-120’s are not cleared for wingtip mounting on any Hornet, worldwide, contrary to the F-16 where this can be done…
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Then the point I made above still stands, yes it is wrong to be missing, but not taking the “high/normal” pylon is only nerfing yourself as no pylons cause drag currently
Well, there’s also those who would want such things for historical authenticity. For the same reason I’d love to see Gaijin add the AIM-9P-5 to the Swiss Hornets.
Right now, not a single weapon modelled in-game for the Swiss F/A-18C Early was ever used by the Swiss Air Force, if we don’t consider other stores (fuel tanks, ATFLIR).
Frankly, the best way to implement the Swiss Hornets would have been to go with an early variant with 9P-5’s and 120B’s, maybe at 13.3, and then (maybe later only, when WT is ready for 9X), a late variant with 9X and 120C plus HMS at 14.3 or higher, depending on what they will do with the advanced missiles…
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Swiss Air Force did trials. There are no pictures of these trials. And I agree, of course, possibly never came into use. Like lot of other things GJ implemented on the Swiss Hornets ;-)
The following content may not be related to this topic. According to the standards you mentioned, may I ask where the AMRAAM for the F20 and the Magic 2 for the Mig23ML are addressed? These were raised in the Issue section but were all rejected. They fully align with your viewpoint: as long as a vehicle can launch and use a weapon (i.e., technically compatible), that weapon can be considered for use on an aircraft. Whether a weapon is owned or held in inventory by a particular country is not a necessary condition. If needed, I’d be happy to provide links to the Issues.
Premiums don’t get missiles that would drastically raise their br’s and therefore those premiums won’t get those missiles.
There isn’t a single proper premium with arh missiles so the answer to your f20 question is incredibly obvious.
Except the viggen but that’s not a real plane so who knows how the rules apply to it.
Because it’s quite clear that they don’t want 14.0 premiums.
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Forgot about that one, was about to amend my comment.
Though that one is a special case because it’s an incomplete prototype shoehorned into the tree because they didn’t want to give the viggen d its correct loadout for some reason.
Both of these are balance considerations that would impact the BR of the respective vehicles.
Considered =/= guaranteed to come simply because they are compatable. There may be other considerations, such as the above mentioned, why they wont come.
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I understand that some vehicles cannot be equipped with better or more advanced weapons due to the need to match their Battle Rating (BR). However, this also presents a paradox: why can’t we increase the Battle Rating (BR) to allow these vehicles, which could benefit from more advanced weapons, to have a second chance to shine?
Well, the RB99 is a special case, the Swiss F/A-18 is a special case too with AIM-120B
Because in many cases, they wont shine. The F-20 for example suits its BR comfortably. Should it be given ARH missiles, it needs to go up in BR were it becomes far less comfortable from an airframe and flight performance perspective.
Similarly with the MIG-23, they suit thier current positions very well. A Magic would only complicate that and is also very out of place in any of the standard researchable variants.
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it would be a 14.0 aircraft with AIM-120s. We know for a fact that Gaijin doesn’t like premiums at 14.0.
Thank you for your response. While I don’t fully agree with your reasoning, your answer has been sufficient for me to understand the developers’ perspective. Thank you! (For example, the F20 is well-suited to its Battle Rating (BR). Personally, I believe the F18A and Mig-21 Bison are strong opponents, but clearly, they shouldn’t be on the same level.)
RB 99 is a AIM120, comes on F21 premium and is br12.7 / 13
yeah it’s at 13.0 because it’s a 12.0 airframe.
Now a Hornet C with 120 countermeasures, AIM-120s but no HMD, why does that sound so familiar…oh wait: F-18C (Sweden) | War Thunder Wiki
And guess what? it’s 14.0! So if you seriously think a Hornet with amraams would be below 14.0, let alone 12.7-13.0, than I’m not sure if that is still cope or just straight delusion.
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Is it possible for the Swiss F/A-18 early to get Flz Lwf LL 63/91 (AIM-9P-5) instead of AIM-9L? It’s a pretty unique Swiss modification and currently none of the new Swiss aircraft use it. Especially since it’s what the F/A-18 early would have used, since it’s prior to the introduction of AIM-9X.