Before the introduction of fox 3s, flying low and left wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. There was room to gain some altitude. That and even with fox 3s now, the belly rubbing is only for the intitial salvo of missile spam before you can actually climb and turn fight. It is still the best SARH missile. Much like thr F/A-18 now, the Aim-7P is a year late and would’ve been more of a balancer during the time the 27ER dominated.
US almost always has France and the UK, sometimes Sweden too, on their team. The Rafale, EFT, and Typhoon are the dominant aircraft. Yes, the F-15E is good, but the meta is currently in the EU’s court right now. I cant imagine it stays there for too long since they only spec’ed into those airframes and the F-35 and we are some updates away from that (what I assume is) largely classified airframe coming to the game.
it was though because there were fox 3s phoenix’s had received a buff that made them hit people much more consistently which meant most people sat under 100m where they wouldn’t hit them and just fly around there untill everything with SARH missiles was dead and the f14s were on their airfield
this ofc lead to the meta of a jas 39a or f16c hugging the dec with pure flare load turning with everything and winning
Because instead of admitting they played badly in an amazing jet, they blame Russian bias because it can never be their fault they flew into space and didn’t notch a missile, they should just win the match as soon as they take off from the ground