The F-16A is practically unplayable in its current state. The main problem is its terrible AIM-7F missiles, which are much less effective than the weapons used by its opponents. The F-16A often has to fight aircraft equipped with much more advanced AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, giving them a huge advantage at long range.
As a result, the F-16A is forced to fight under very unfavorable conditions. Before it even gets a chance to properly use its strengths, the enemy can already launch an AMRAAM at it. With the current matchmaking and weapon limitations, the F-16A is simply not competitive.
2 Likes
Well yeah, that’s why you play the F-15J at the same BR instead.
They’re identical to 7Ms that are carried on 13.0 aircraft like F-2A ADTW. The issue is you only have 2 of them.
At least the sparrows are getting buffed next update, the f16aj could be worse, it could be the french ones with only ir missiles at the same br
Next update they are being buffed
AIM-7F/M are both bad for 12.7+. It wouldn’t matter if you had 8
Doesn’t have to do with F-16AJ + F-15J has the same issue just gets AAM-3
French one is objectively better as it has IRCCM missiles which at least routinely kill what they get launched at where as the sparrows and 9Ls both routinely get dodged or flared
The F-2A ADTW is so much better than the F-16AJ, that is not a fair comparison.
It has AESA radar at 13.0, 4 of the best IRCCM missiles and double the sparrow amount. Also better FM and more countermeasures.
I’m saying strictly in terms of missile performance alone, the 7F is identical to the 7M carried by other planes. I did however said
How does the F-15J being undertiered fix the F-16AJ being trash?
OP didnt say japan sucks at 12.7, he is complaining that the F-16AJ is unbplayable which is reasonable tbf
I’m saying because its trash you may as well play the better plane. That’s about it. F-16AJ is stuck where it is. If it goes down it beats every 12.3 except hornet.
There’s just no point. F-16AJ bad is like water wet. You can’t really unwet water.
Don’t take this as “I’m advocating for undertiered vehicles”. We all need decompression. I’m only saying that as things stands, then its more practical to play the 15J.
I don’t see much of an issue with it being 12.3 because it is limited to only 2 AIM-7F. The worse 12.3 platforms like the F-4EJ have up to 4.
At 12.0 you have the high prf PD phantoms with HMD and up to 6.
I would not mind for it to go down, but that also means the F-16A with 6x aim9L should go to 12.0 which is also a good thing tbf because it has almost no battle presence with aim9L’s at 12.3. The netz I don’t mind keeping at 12.3, but won’t break anything if goest to 12.0 too.
Obviously, if we got decompression it would be the best thing. But snail is allergic to it. The F-16AJ is one of the better examples of being a victim of BR compression.
Yeah the issue is that’s an 11.0 airframe. You’re a 12.3 (up to 13.7 competitive) airframe. At 12.3 you also have the block 10 F-16s which also does not have radar missiles.
30 cms on bricks, and they’re PD HDN.
This is half true. It had some battle presence in the fox 1 battlespace because launching them required commitment, and the 9L kit was a good rat fnf weapon. It’s a lot harder as more fox 3s are introduced (especially with Su-30s being right there in a full uptier), making this strictly a compression issue.
Here’s my Netz stats. 90% of these stats are stock grind since I haven’t played much after I got the python 3s. Played after Su-30 release:
It is a capable plane. The airframe is hands down the best of its entire bracket bar gripen/F-2A ADTW (both at higher br). Played well it can defeat any fox 1 launched its way. It’s just that since 99% of matches have you at 13.0-13.3 you can’t do much against fox 3s.
Yeah, no, it isn’t unplayable even if has a high BR. It demands positioning and situational awareness, but can reward you heavily for all of these. The F-16A FM is one of the best for the BR. Should it go lower? Not really, we need decompression, not compression. F-15s should go back to 13.0 imo as well.
Compression and asking things to move down is also kind of a fools errand. Because now you’re subjecting other planes to the same issues your plane once face. Do these planes deserve to fight an F-16?
1 Like
Solution: decompression
NEXT!
1 Like
Tbf, the F-18A could be used as justification for the AJ to go down to maybe 12.3 but I don’t see that happening
I dislike F/A-18A current BR and the compression in general because these mismatches are so often used as justification by people to bring their own plane down in BR lol
stares at the 30 something threads about people wanting their aircraft moved down or get ARHs due to su-30s
Even the 13.0 absolutely slaps the netz/f-16a around without much trouble. And these jets rely on the enemy being clueless to not tap the flare button to negate your missile kill.
Unlike the Phantoms at 12.0, for example, these are much more reliable jets to get kills with and that can actually put some pressure.
I also got over 4 KDR with the netz but that thing does not perform well on the average matchmaker, very often you need to rely on gunning people down.
I think my KDR is mostly because of how “ratty” I need to play it, and as such I play more passively than some other jets with more offensive capabilities. I can get better results with an uptiered MiG-23MLD than a downtiered F-16A
True
Ideally we’d just decompress massively but gaijin being gaijin won’t do that
Only the flankers are the real trouble. Gen 3 planes with arhs are not as hard to deal with since yk, their airframe is trash which limits their reactiveness. Phoenixes I can pre-notch easily then rat from there.
13.3 is the real issue because these are essentially just your plane but better
That’s like every IR heavy jet ever since time immemorial.
Sure, but the F-16A is fighting jets that don’t rely on that. It has better FM, but still I think it doesn’t have a good place in the current matchmaker
No one disagrees with this. I’m only disagreeing with compression as a solution to compression. Yes yes I know “but devs prob won’t ever implement it”. Asking for compression is actively giving them reason not to do exactly that.
They’ll point to performance of planes and “players wanted it”, then decompression never happens.
