While the Japanese tech tree is outwardly in a very desirable spot at the moment, having aircraft ranging from the F-16, to the Gripen, to the the Su-30, or even options only found in it, like the F/A-18D or the domestic F-2. The actual Japanese portion of the JP tech tree isn’t exactly in a great spot in the meta.
Both the F-2 and F-15J(M), its top options, aren’t even top tier aircraft at this point. and beneath them you jump down even farther, to the F-16AJ, and F-15J, at 12.7br. Besides from these options being poorly spread out, and of lower tier than the top vehicles of other nations. They also have the issue of largely not performing well at their own tier.
The F-2 is quite bad with only 4x ARHs at 13.7, the J(M) is decent for a 13.7, however as all of that rating, struggle due to uptiers to top tier. The F-16AJ is the only F-16 lacking IRCCM missiles at 12.7. And while the base F-15J is generally under tiered for its kit, again like it’s older brother, it struggles due to up tiers into ARHs.
So, where does the tech tree go from here?
With the AAM-4B denied for the moment, I figured I may as well take this opportunity to see how the community feels about the state of Japan’s domestic top tier options. And how they think balancing / changing them should be approached in the future. As currently its in a bit of a tricky spot, and I hope having more community discourse on it in one place will help guide gaijin to future decisions on it.
Currently, Japan has two domestic options at a BR of 13.7, being the F-15J(M), and the Mitsubishi F-2. They bring up the first bottleneck to this, in that the versions in game are both the newest of their respective developments IRL* (There is a newer F-15J, but all that it adds is more RWR range, and sensor fusion for its MAWS). Having no more advanced domestic options puts japan in a tricky spot for balancing additions. As Smin has stated, the snail has to make considerations for how additions to lower than top tier vehicles would affect balance. Which is a good thing of course, because we all love balance. But in the case of japan it causes issues.
With no more modern aircraft to come capable of carrying future japanese domestic missiles (the AAM-4B, and AAM-5/B in the future, once that time comes for all nations to receive IIRs). They have no guaranteed entryway into the game. Unlike basically every other nation, which has either a proper “top tier” vehicle, or else aircraft still to come, for more advanced munitions to come to, japan is a bit stuck.
The second part, both to this issue, and to the potential fixes, is the buffs that can be received to the currently existing equipment. Accepted or passed to devs bug reports exist spanning japan’s capabilities. From radar performance, to the performance of missiles, to RWRs, and more.
If these were to be implemented, they would also further help boost the performance of the current japanese high tier options. The issue is, some of them may honestly be too effective. If the missiles were IRL accurate as per their bug reports, the aircraft they are on would in all likelyhood need to be moved up anyways, regardless of new additions.
Now, in my personal opinion, the best solution would be the addition of earlier variants of the aircraft we have in game, to smooth out progression, and to enable the current aircraft to comfortably rise up to higher ranks. Aircraft like an F-15J J-MSIP, with AAM-3s + Aim-120Bs, or a proper F-2A early, would both work to fill out these spots nicely. But what does everyone else think?
- Buff JP AAMs, and move up what they’re on
- Buff JP AAMs, without moving their platforms up in BR
- Do not buff the current JP AAMs
- Apply other buffs to JP aircraft and move them up in BR
- Apply other buffs to JP aircraft and do not move them up in BR
- Don’t apply other buffs to JP aircraft
- Give new armaments to top tier JP aircraft, and add in new additions to fill the gap
- Give new armaments to top aircraft, and do not add in filler aircraft
- Do not give japan newer munitions at the moment
