So with the coming update, the Tornado IDS SLE will be getting HARMs as it should, however one of the things that has still not been addressed is the Battle Rating position of this plane in realistic battles.
Simply put, it is too high. A problem that has been apparent to anyone with two good eyes it being at 12.3 is is massively over-BR’d both in its capabilities and its contemporary aircrafts at the BR.
Firstly its capabilities, they are extremely limited.
With HARMs occupying the same slots as LJDAMs, Brimstones and HOSBOs it effectively devolves into a balancing act between stronger SEAD capability vs better CAS capability. Which for already a mediocre CAS strike aircraft is not great.
And that is just its CAS capabilities, its ability to defend itself are limited to only two IRCCM missiles with a trail and a Mauser. Unfortunately for the Mauser it is installed on a plane with one of the worst top tier FMs ingame, handling like a whale.
Secondly tying a bit into the capabilities are the contemporary aircrafts at the same BR.
This dev update has added some interesting planes and also the SEAD capability to some of the already present planes at 12.3 BR.
To make it easier ill summarize it:
Russia 12.3:
- ARH/ARM capable SU30MK2 with 6 FnF Kh29s/4 MITL Kh59Ms and good flight model
- Mig29M and K with ARHs, Kh29s and ARMs
- SMT with only 2 Kh29s and 2 KAB500s and ARHs/ARMs
All better FM than the tornado (SMT being the worst)
China 12.3:
- MKK same as russian MK2
- Jeff (JF16) which with loadout limitations (ARMs/ARHs occupying same slots as general ground ordinance) is the closest to tornado but unlike tornado has actually a good FM
- new JH7A2 with up to 6 IRCCM PL5EII and 2 PL12s, and 4x ARMs or IR cruise missiles or IR bombs or Kh29T with targeting pod not occupying any weapon station
USA 12.3:
- Only 12.3 is a premium Hornet with better FM, up to 4 ARMs/FnF missiles and 4 A2A missiles.
GB 12.3:
- A tornado with up to 9 ARMs, has access to FnF PGMs, HMD assisted 9M IR missiles and unlike SLE has access to wing mounted brimstones.
- Otherwise a premium hornet at the same BR same as USA except it lacks HARMs.
Germany 12.3:
- yes even in its own tree there is a much better 12.3 alternative in the form of the premium Hornet.
Lacks ARMs same as the canadian Hornet in GB tree but has a much better FM and 4 FnF missiles. Granted mavericks are currently the worst performing FnF missile ingame but they are still more likely to connect with a target than a slow glide bomb on a tornado.
As such i propose that the SLE should go down in BR to 12.0 at the bare minimum.
As of speaking it performance is extremely lacking, especially for the battle rating its been put at, which is visible to everyone especially if you just look at statshark.
Spoiler
