Everyone has equipment they can get. Meteor, AIM-174B, R-37M, PL-15, IRIS-T, AIM-9X, R-74, PL-10.
By their fault, I mean that they skipped one stage and jumped to the next and the stage we are currently in, in the game, is left empty for that nation.
Uhhhh, throwing the Germans under the bus while fun is a bit irrelevant here.
The British wanted an all-in-one radar, the Germans specifically focused on air to air. We can argue about whether or not they were frugal/cheap about it later, but it’s important to know this now
While the differences aren’t apparent now, at the very least gaijin could in theory go the direction of eventually giving the AESA typhoon Germany has better ECCM capability over the British one (as a compromise, anyway).
Functionally speaking a ~10° difference doesn’t really do much especially when you can’t launch the missiles you have beyond 70° and you’re still able to guide the missiles while notching, so…
I was just giving another example of a government that didn’t put much focus on its military.
German government has consistently gone for the cheaper option. They have opted for a gunless Eurocopter Tiger (which they are now replacing with H145M purely for cost reasons even though H145M is worse than Tiger and wasn’t even supposed to be an attack helicopter at first), they canceled the super hornet order, they chose to modernize the F-4F to mount fox3 instead of the MiG-29G which they had modernized once and decided to randomly give them away for 1 euro per plane. And I could go on mentioning all the shortcomings of German government, some of which so weird that could potentially even be considered espionage and treason for sabotaging the nation’s security and defense.
Yeah, but the issue is, with the current outlook japan isnt actually certain when its going to get its future equipment. Seeing as the snail has confirmed the AAM-4B isn’t planning to come this update with its contemporaries. Hence me making this topic to see what other people think about how / if / when / why they think those new additions should come for it.
Yeah AAM-4B is a bit tricky to implement.
It is better than the stuff we currently have in game but it is not on par with things like Meteor so it will underperform.
The meteor and such have been confirmed to not be coming this update. All thats has been confirmed are the Aim-120D and Pl-12A. Which are the closest in service equivelents to the AAM-4B, being able to be said to be a bit better even than it.
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Could there be a chance that the devs add it later before the update?
Like how Gripen E wasn’t ready by the time of the dev stream but was eventually added.
Smin said its not planned for this update, so unlikely.
Oh boy. So they do actually classify it as on par with Meteor and other missiles of its class.
The only vehicle I can think that could bridge the gap is this one
F-15J J-MSIP Modernization Type 2 (Improved Self-Defense Capability)
credit to @Xeno_quaza for this one
My personal thoughts on that is
while you can have the original one still having AAM-3, AIM-120A and AAM-4’s
this could be the one getting the AAM-5 / AAM-4B’s.
Currently Japan just doesn’t have anything else that’s more modern than that outside of the F-35.
The F-15JSI is still unknown on how far it has progressed.
In the last couple of years, the F-2A has been seen flying with AAM-5’s which could be added to the game.
But that’s what I would think is the only stopgap measure, add F-15J J-MSIP Modernization Type 2 (Improved Self-Defense Capability) and give that one the newer AAM-5 and AAM-4 missiles.
Japan has something to bridge the gap from 13.7 to 14.3+.
and we get something more of a unique model of a F-15J.
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the only real upgrade that domestic japanese planes can get is aam5.
aam4b would esssentally be the exact same as aam4, all it gets is a better seekerhead. I don’t think it even gets something like gnss similar to pl-15/pl-12a/aim120d etc.
So like, considering that their planes are probably where they should be, I think the only realistic option is either never touching domestic japanese top tier again (other than adding aam4b) and the future of japanese top tier being only foreign stuff and the f-35.
Tbf, it should get better guidance logic. From some secondary sources it sounds like a form of APN. So it would pose a decent benefit for energy against maneuvering targets.
Its not that it would be particularly exceptional, and thats honestly why I think it should be added. Its a solid upgrade for currently mid aircraft, but not something that would push them to out of bounds performance for what you’d expect.
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WHILE USA AND CHINA’S GETTING AIM120D AND PL12A, I THINK JAPAN’S NEEDED AA4MB ALSO FOR BALANCE. Big dream to Gaijin
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they will add f35 in December of 2026, like I said Japan’s needed AAM4B for balancing
I mean like fine but the name of the nation is literally Japan. Cool addition from side nation are fine and dany but so far all of them are copy and paste or in certain case they are worse than their “Counter part”. Saying it doesn’t when in this case it certainly does. This is a really bad take
The consequence of being the second country after USA for holding the largest amounts of F35. IRL great for Japan but in game sucks. Problem is there’s going to be a gap from 13.7 to whatever br F35 comes in. And the fact that AAM4B is seen as not on the same level as aim120D concerns me. Once the first 5th gen planes come, not f35, and nations get next gen missiles like Meteor and Mica NG to combat nations like USA, Russia, and China as it seems they’re getting 5th gen first, Japan is going to get nerfed being stuck with AAM4B. If Gaijin puts more modern F2 and f15JM at a lower br, which seems likely, then maybe some balance is achieved. But 4 AAM4B at the same br as AESA typhoons os su30SM2, is that really fair?
The other option that I can think off is the F-15DJ to fill the slot the current F-15J(M) is in while the F-15J(M) gets placed in a higher Br due to it getting the AAM-4B and AAM-5.
There are F-15DJ’s which has the same HMD / JHMCS as the F-15J(M) so it could make a interesting filler option too.
But I prefer having both the F-15DJ and the F-15DJ(M) (The one with JHMCS), as a split line from the F-15J line.
F-15DJ
Also with the F-15DJ it also allows for future intergration and implementation of dedicated ECM and Jamming equipment.
such as seen the secondary role of the F-15DJ’s being interdiction escort.
F-15DJ unique camouflages / Agressor liveries
F-15DJ with JHMCS
and the final F-15J to be the F-15J J-MSIP Modernisation Type-2 (Improved Self-Defense Capability) with AAM-4B and AAM-5’s.
especially since it has better RWR detection ranges and Intergrated Electronic Warfare system.
I feel this aircraft would be the best one we have available and that exists to fill the spot as Japan’s top tier air contender.
F-15J to be the F-15J J-MSIP Modernisation Type-2 (Improved Self-Defense Capability) images
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Low-key I wonder why its assumed to be that strong? It’s only a 20% range bump over the base AAM-4, meanwhile the the Aim-120D is like a 60% range bump. Like, sure, if it’s AESA was modeled properly, it would be effectively impossible to multipath, and notching it would take dumping a ridiculous amount of chaff, and many RWRs just wouldn’t pick it up. But from how we’ve seen it so far, gaijin doesn’t model AESAs like that, so… I really wonder what the reason is for the apprehension on it.
Supposedly it gets a maneuverability buff, but that’s entirely from its guidance logic and actuation performance as far as I can tell, and we can see how much of a maneuverability buff the Aim-120C got with similar traits.
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If your flying below the PD gate it still wouldn’t take as much
I think adding the new AAMs would not be a problem. But instead of just giving the new missiles to the current F-2A in the tech tree and moving it up in BR, they should create a copy of it with a higher BR. Yes - we would have to go through the stock grind again but like this we could still chose to fly the 13.7 version with limited arnament. It might not be realistic to have a “F-2A Late” version or whatever you want to call it, but I don’t think this would be too much of an issue. Yes - having only 4 rarar missiles would be rough at 14.7 and upwards, but I love flying the F-5TH too at 13.3 with only 2 radar missiles and a heavily overtiered airframe.