The MiG-29M (9-15) Should Be Tech Tree, Not Squadron

Machinery of War Discussion Aircraft
1

Hey Gaijin,

Making the MiG-29M (9-15) a squadron vehicle would make very little sense for the structure of the Russian air tree.

The 9-15 isn’t some side-grade or oddball variant. It’s the most advanced Fulcrum in the line. We already have the 9-12, 9-13, and 9-19. The natural progression is obvious. The 9-15 is the logical endpoint of that branch before moving fully into MiG-35 territory.

Every other nation gets a clean progression path for their top fighters:

•	F-16A > ADF > F-16C variants
•	F-15A > F-15C > F-15C Golden Eagle
•	Su-27 > SM > Su-30SM > SM2

In those cases, the most capable version in the line isn’t locked behind squadron points, it’s part of the main research path. That’s how progression is supposed to work.

If the 9-15 ends up squadron-only, it effectively breaks the Fulcrum branch. Players grinding through the MiG-29 line would hit the 9-19 and then… what? The best Fulcrum is gated behind squadron mechanics? That’s not clean design.

The “it was a prototype” argument doesn’t really hold up either. War Thunder has never had an issue putting prototypes in the tech tree when they represent the logical evolution of a vehicle family. If prototype status alone determined placement, a lot of current vehicles wouldn’t be where they are.

From a BR perspective, the 9-15 also fills a very important slot between early Fulcrums and heavier Flankers/later Su-30 variants. Locking that behind squadron grind just creates an artificial access barrier at high tier for Russia’s most refined MiG-29.

Squadron vehicles should be side content, interesting, optional, or niche variants. The 9-15 is the culmination of the MiG-29 line.

If the current squadron tag on the dev server is just a placeholder for testing, that’s understandable. But if there’s real consideration of making it squadron-only, I strongly think that would be the wrong call for progression, balance, and player fairness.

The MiG-29 line deserves the same coherent structure other nations get. The 9-15 belongs in the tech tree.

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Im afraid this ultimately matters little due to unique position squadron vehicles hold.

Theyre not affected by FOMO nor they are kept behind paywall (at least in a sense you can get them for free, you just have to be in active clan and wait) so they are “easily accesible” (technically more accessible to new players as they dont have to grind all previous TT planes and ranks).

MiG-29M being squadron does not detract from its aviability in russian TT.

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It could be a filler, due to the fact it’s not on dev just yet

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Furthermore, it would not be the first squadron vehicle to be more advanced than the same vehicle in the tech tree.

5

uh… but it is?

Its an experimental prototype, therefore it mostly belongs to premium/event/squadrn vehicles.

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The main argument you can use for the MiG-29M being tech tree instead of squadron is the Su-33.

The br could have been used as an argument previously but we now are getting a squadron gripen at 13.7 too, making that argument not possible

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No real reason to have the 29M as a TT vehicle when we can get the 35 in the future
Would rather not have to spend an extra 320k rp and 1 mil SL for a minor upgrade

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Also, the 29M being squadron would mean bad players using it a lot, bringing stats down.

Could be used to get buffs possibly

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mig29K would also be a very comparable version that could come in tech tree instead of mig29M, one or even two of the more modern mig29s coming not in the tech tree isnt that surprising and doesnt really make that much difference

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Lower Mig-29M stats = MiG-35 will probably come at a more favorable BR because it will be based off the 29M’s stats

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Now i wait for the MiG-29K and MiG-29Kr