In the Heavy Cavalry update, ALARM has been added to the game but artificially restricted from the Tornado GR1 due to “balance concerns”.
This has a number of significant issues which quite frankly doesn’t make sense.
The first and most important of them all, is the hard requirement for the Tornado GR1 to remain at 11.3. Britain has 0 ground vehicles at 11.0 or 11.3, you would not uptier the 10.7 line-up to 11.3 just to make use of the Tornado GR1, so you would exclusively use the Tornado GR1 at 11.7 anyway alongside the Challenger 2s and ADATS currently at 11.7.
This is the same Battle rating as the Tornado RET8 which has gotten 4x AGM-88. The Tornado RET8 gains a number of advantages over the Tornado GR1 such as:
- Better engines
- More Flares
- MAWS
- Better Targeting pod
- Better GBUs
The Tornado GR1’s only real advantage is the Fire & Forget PGMs which are of mixed value given their poor handling, slow speed and TV seeker. They are almost always intercepted before reaching the target.
ALARM are versatile weapons, able to engage pretty much everything they can encounter, but are slower than AGM-88 with less range. They also have an extreme loft profile that results in them missing anything that is too close. This heavily limits any surprise attacks and results in them being notably easy to intercept. For the most part, ALARM is weaker than AGM-88C.
The reason given for ALARM being refused is that any quantity of ALARM being added to the Tornado GR1 would result in a BR increase to 12.0. Even a reduced quantity such as 5. Just let that sink in for a moment. A Tornado GR1 with 5x ALARM, is considered 12.0 but a Tornado RET8 with 4x AGM-88C is fine at 11.7. I genuinely and completely cannot understand any possible reasoning behind it.
If 5x ALARM is so unbelievably OP then why not reduce the count even more? Worse case scenario imo would be 4 in the same positions as the AGM-88, 2x on the belly, 2x on the main wing pylons. An even more extreme limitation in count, but compensated for by a significant amount of flexibility would be limiting it to the 2x ALARM on the unique outer Pylons. This would allow 2x ALARM to be run alongside the full standard A2G payload, but the heavily reduced count would then not be unreasonable for the 11.7 BR.
This so far only considers the Tornado GR1 in a GRB context and fails to acknowledge the Tornado GR1 in an ARB or ASB context. The aircraft needs buffs. All 6 at 11.3 ideally need buffs. Adding ARM to these airframes would not only increase their functionality, but also make these aircraft more fun, without impacting balance in any way. The ASSTA1 and IDS (1995) probably should at least get 2x AGM-88 if not their full 4x AGM-88 just for Air modes alone. Tornado GR1 is likewise the same, and the outer 2x Pylons at a minimum would be the most effective buff for the Tornado GR1 at this time. Allowing for 2x ALARM to always be run. Increasing the count further, only aids it even more.
The bare minimum the Tornado GR1 should receive is the 2x Outer Pylon ALARM. I do not believe that gaining 2-3 on the belly on top of this would be unreasonable, bringing the total count to 4 or 5. Yes it would allow for 2x PGMs to be run at the same time, but these are hardly powerful weapons at this BR and rarely actually make it to the target. But the bare minimum should be 2x ALARM, and if 2x ALARM on top of the current existing loadout is considered unreasonable at 11.7, then there is simply no point to pretending that balance exists anymore.
What should the Tornado GR1 (at a GRB BR of 11.7) receive?
- Add all available ALARM
- Add a limited ALARM count
- Don’t add ALARM