The F-5C is no longer good

You’re a plane that has two children blowing candles for engines with two of the worst IR missiles in game at a BR where everyone has energy generation comparable to that of top tiers while carrying four or more 30g missiles. Sure, you outrate the mig21 but why does it matter when the mig21 is literally 500kmh faster than you at sea level? it is not a good plane, 10.3 keeps getting uptiered where stuff like the f8e can do fine. Some 11.3’s (and some 10.3s especially soviets) are quite underBRd and need to go up to the BR’s they actually belong at /(say 11.7 for the mig23 mld and mla/ml) and 10.7 for the MiG21 SMT-MF. The F-5C is quite hard to balance though, because it curbstomps at 9.3 but it’s quite meh to fodder at 10.3+ where it needs to rely on people engaging you instead of running away, climbing to the ozone layer and coming back with more energy, because the f-5c doesn’t feel like a jet at all, it feels like a prop so you should keep boom and zooming and repositioning yourself all the time because your NOT engines aren’t going to give you the thrust that the rest of 10.3s have (lol). And you know what means going up? Eating radar missiles.

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eh its just a changing meta it seems

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the meta has changed a lot since the mig23 ml got added and it still beats the f16 on radar jousting.

heh? you fr?
honestly i dont think so… i think the 16 can easily beat the 23 in bvr

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the mig23 has a better radar and better missiles, the aim7m can’t do BVR, the moment you launch past 8km it will straight up go anywhere. The R24R is the second best radar missile in game after the r27er but it’s not effective past 6km because it’s of the same nature of the aim7e2 DF.

The MiG23 ML has one of the best radars in the game because it is an MTI mode so it’s not Doppler but filters chaff and terrain out, this makes notching inviable and chaffing normally like you chaff an f-4e not viable either; the only ways to defeat it is by going cold and chaffing or by hiding under terrain irregularities since these missiles are so massive that even multipath interference will not be enough, for their splash damage being so massive it doesn’t matter at all.

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imo the best SARHs are:
R-27ER
R-27R
Aim-7M (unbroken version)
R-24R

also the MTI is chaffable but it just doesnt give an RWR warning.
also the reason the the R-24R has an advantage over the 7M is due to IOG.

the r24r’s true advantage is reliability and a radar that can’t be chaffed unless you waste half or more of your 30 available pops. The aim7m/f is very effective because the tigershark has the f18 radar which certainly guides it like no other radar in game, doesn’t matter if you chaff while going cold, it feels like going against r27er’s.

wont argue that the 24R isnt reliable fr you got a point.

the r24r and the reworked flares make r60m’s quite a better choice than aim9l’s since they’re fast, turn harder from the start and have to be used from very up close; the meta at top tier has become a “who can kill anyone the quickest” and that happens to be the r27er for long range, the r24r for mid range and the r60, magic 2 and python from close range. This means Soviets (which equal in amounts to usa) are the dominant nation in air rb.
MiG23 ML can go to 12.0 and still do fine. Summed up: after certain events that happened in the real world, some patriotic country stopped being the main source of premium sales from the mollusc, and now it is no longer treated with the same love. American weapons at top tier are stale. The M39/colt mk12/mk11 and vulcan deal so little damage now, the aim9l’s are horrible, the aim7m’s and F’s need a true radar like the one on tomcat or tigershark to somewhat work. USA 10.3+ is right now a bloated minor nation.

I do not agree with any of your points.
Everyone will agree that f5c is overperforming and could easily be 10.7 and f5e at 11.0 your argument about 9L is completely unvalid aswell it is literally better than r60m in every way except ultra short range shots

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Vulcan is still the best gun as well you get a lot of ammo and very high muzzle velocity

Would r60m be able to do the shot lol never
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxd1HHpK2wSBDYONmS2AfaM9Wb_K0DCwEk?si=b18BGrgZWTo2vTz0

let me adress your points

I do not agree with any of your points.
Everyone will agree that f5c is overperforming and could easily be 10.7

So you’re telling me that something that barely can reach mach 1.01 at sea level and climbs worse than any of the 9.3s, has two mediocre 10g missiles and thrives if people dare engaging with it, is worth going ABOVE things that have four or more missiles, twice it’s climb rate and 300kmh quicker speeds?

and f5e at 11.0

So you’re telling me that something that can barely reach mach 1.05 at sea level, climbs worse than any other 10.0, has two mediocre 20g missiles and thrives if people dare engaging with it, is worth going on par with things like the j7e, MiG23M, F-4E and MiG21 Bis that not only beat it in 1v1 (except mig21 bis and F4E unless it sticks to vertical one circle or scissors) but also carry four or more all aspect missiles and is still 300km slower than the rest?

your argument about 9L is completely unvalid aswell it is literally better than r60m in every way except ultra short range shots

how is it unvalid? The AIM9L is currently one of the easiest missiles to flare even on full afterburner. Besides, everyone is within 0.8km of each other when the radar missiles are depleted. The r60 pulls earlier, harder and accelerates more than the aim9l, giving it less chances of seeing any flare.

You’re a soviet main while i’ve played many nations including France USA and USSR at 11.0+ and I can tell you a MiG19 with makeshift flares (rocket pods) at 10.3 does better than the F5C. You also played the F5A which is the same thing as the f5C but at 10.7 and do very poorly on it.

extremely cherry picked scenario.

Hahahah cherry picked full afterburner and even dropped flares aka 99% of scenarios on toptier 9l is no where bad

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cherry picked since the target was flying straight and flaring below the seeker’s fov without even turning afterburner off, and cherry picked especially since it’s a meme video. Are you really thinking the f104s he showed were S tier aircraft? they just fodder except f104g and f104a. I’ve went through entire furballs of missiles with the f16 and the mirage 2000 and after flaring all of them i eventually got killed by an r60m going side aspect.

2km shot burner off NON STRAIGHT LINE r60m kill https://youtu.be/AWCgUYLDPCg?si=HxCv3Giwkb_0unSS literally further and between decoy terrain, the aim9l was shot from 1.3km away and also took more time to reach the target than that r60m did from 2km away.

Your poor performance on the chinese f-5a should be proof enough from your standpoints that even with two aim9j’s the f5c is not worth even 10.3. Most 10.3s are too low in BR, not the F-5C.

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Sod off, it’s a major major skill issue if you really think the f5c isn’t still cancer in down tiers and perfectly fine in uptiers. It is not hard to survive in a hyper mobile jet with 120flares. No need for missiles when you can dog fight basically everything apart from maybe the ariete and most jets can’t outrun you as you have very good acceleration and climb rate. The e especially is even worse due to the more powerful engines and missiles but even the c could (and probably should) be 10.7 and work fine apart from when it goes to 11.7 maybe. The f5c should either have its flares removed as they never got it irl and it would help balance it or move it up.

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yes it clearly perform better with a rocket pod…

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Imagine playing older version of T-2, 2 AIM-9E , 33s turn time, and only 5000 kgf thrust in a Jaguar-like Airframe with no countermeasures against F-5C, If you want to give a better missiles like 9P, It will probably went to 10.7, the agility of the plane to me in a Mitsubishi F-1 or 104J is unbeatable, not to mention if you move it to lower BR.

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i literally said its a hard plane to balance, that it’s many of the other 10.3s’ 11.3s that are too low in BR.

Kind of ironic you say I have a skill issue while you totally disregarded all the post. I’m 503-171 on it while i’ve been teamkilled like 80 times in total, last day for example got tked after getting 2 kills in a row.