Quite simply unplayable. I have been playing the F-104s for a while now, I’m no newbie to how they play and how they fly. It will never be the very best plane at its BR, but the F-104G, S, and ASA are and have been disgustingly overtiered and underequipped. The G gets flares and is quite fast, but it gets a whopping 2 mediocre Aim-9Js at 11.0 BR. Yes, that means you can face 12.0s with look-down radars and SARH with an F-104 that has a maximum of two 9Js.
The F-104S at 11.3 gets new fancy radar missiles and six 9Js now, and a new better engine that lets it go REALLY fast! Oh, except you now regularly face things with PD/MTI radars and SARH missiles, things like the Mig-23 and Mirage that can both catch you and out-turn you, and carry all-aspect missiles! Ah but your new shiny radar missiles? Nope, you have a horrendous radar and no look-down capability so chaff will instantly ruin your lock, that is if the insanely underwhelming Aim-7E even tracks properly. Also you lose one of your only redeeming features in the M-61 Vulcan if you choose to carry SARH missiles, so that’s fun!
The ASA doesn’t get any better. You now get to be 12.0, facing Su-33s, Mirages if all kinds, F-16s, F-18s etc… but you have the same engine against much faster opponents so your speed doesn’t even matter anymore, you face all-aspect IRCCM missiles and now everything has look-down radars and very capable SARH missiles. You now have no advantages that make the F-104 work in this game, you have a non-directional RWR, and still lose your gun if you want your now slightly better SARH missiles, but missiles that are already kinda average on the J-8B down at 11.3 BR. And those new Aim-9Ls, you only get 4 (2 if you’re stock).
Can you get kills every once in a while in the F-104s? Yes. But for the average and even slightly above average WT player, who has spent well over a year learning the F-104 platform and its in-game quirks and play style, these things are absolutely dead. They exist at their current BRs only to be farmed as RP and SL piñatas. I know full well I’m not the only person who has brought this up, and it’s not a new problem either. So how many more people need to bring up the absurdity of the F-104s in this game before something is actually done to fix their situation? It’s not even just one bad plane, this is a considerable part of the Italian air tech tree that is borderline useless in many matches.
I can’t speak for the German, Chinese, and Japanese starfighters as I only have experience with the Italian ones, but I haven’t heard that many amazing things about them either.