I believe that the Premium F-18c Early should get a buff or lower BR.
The reason for this statement is because the the vehicle should not be going against near top tier such as USSR premium Malaysian Flanker, China Premium Su-30, US premium F-14,etc. All being 13.0 or above. Comparing the US premium f18 vehicle to other jets that was listed above is that F18 have less engine power, missile differences, and worser radar due to it having more early radar comparing to others. Now let’s compare the USA Premium F18 and German’s premium F18, the German f18 is a later generation than the US f18 which mean it got better radar, BETTER SPARROW (USA: Aim 7m) (GERMAN: Aim 7p) more thrust powerful engine, flight dynamic, and able to carry more countermeasures (120 in total) comparing to US f18 (60 in total) NOTE: both jet is 12.7. Using the US f18 at 12.7 is pure hell, the reason is that you would be going against F-14s, Mig-29s, Flankers, and possibly a lower tier Griffin. Which almost all these jets have FOX-3 & comparing to you having FOX-1 and a dream with worser Radar.
My suggestions: Add BOL Chaff Pods, Buff engine power, buff radar, give Aim 9m. (if it gonna stick being at 12.7)
Better Option if Gaijin want to give the statement like This jet is early that’s why it won’t get better stuffLOWER BR FROM 12.7 TO 12.3
Im grinding the US tree and is actually pure hell grinding in F-18 early going against FOX-3 missile and is actually not fair going against those jets and im actually making a good suggestion.
Thats an issue with the SU30 premiums being too low in BR, not the hornets.
If anything when the SU30s werent in the game the hornet was very oppressive in the 12.3-13.3 BR bracket as it had a brilliant radar to guide sparrows and one of the best airframes in the game.
I personally do still believe the 12.3 hornet should be 12.7 and the premium hornet should be 13.0 (and given 9M).
If you think It should be move to 13.0 with AIM 9m, I think it should also be buff with other equipment like radar, engine, and more countermeasure because there would still be FOX 3 missles.
Aint no way Su-30MK is an equal to F-15E or Mirage with MICAs. They belong to 13.7, and something like 27SM belongs to 14.0
But until an average WT player will be able to utilise them properly (they do have a certain skill floor with mediocre radar, short range missiles and worst RWR coverage out of all top tier) they won’t move an inch in terms of battle rating.
the radar is brilliant and perfectly reliable and the engines do plenty for the BR, they outcompete things like the Harrier FA.2 and AV-8B+ by miles already.
30 flares and 30 chaff is still enough most the time (when you arent seeing the dreaded su30 premiums) as those BRs require you to sit at multipath altitudes a fair amount of the time anyway to avoid BVR amraam and pheonix shots.
Theres also no extra CMs that could be fitted to all of them so there isnt more disparity than there already is. The German one has the best flight performance from the engines, american has the most weapon choices and the canadian looks the best (if you have the preorder skin, thats drippy as all hell)
In my opinion, I think that the SU-30MK and the France Premium F-16AM should switch place cause for some reason that f-16 at 13.7 HIGHER BR than the SU-30MK which is BS.
its certainly no mirage with micas, that things cracked.
its largely compression but even then the SU30MK is not far below the standards of a 14.0 but are superior to 13.7s like Gripen C (especially the SAAF, R-Darter is a pisstake of a missile)
Player skill Vs vehicle capability will forever be a destructive battle for this games health.
Short range missiles and worse RWR i do think are easily overcome by how i find the almost top tier gameplay works best, flying at Mpath altitude and getting close so your missiles have plenty of energy.
AM just doesn’t sell as well so it’s not getting lower br “privileges”
But French F-5 had a good run (I don’t remember if it was raised in br) with being better than US F-5C in every conceivable way but sharing the exact same br with it
Telling me to “just sit at multipath altitude” completely ignores the reality of the 12.7 matchmaker. The US F-18 only gets 60 total countermeasures. If you split it 50/50, 30 chaff pops are completely useless when you are forced to constantly notch and defend against 13.7 premium Fox-3 spam from Su-30s and Flankers. Because the Hornet’s high AoA flight model bleeds massive energy on defensive turns, you burn through those 30 pops in two engagements max. Staying permanently glued to the deck just leaves you wide open to top-down IRCCM drops.
Comparing a Mach 1+ air-superiority fighter to sub-sonic strike jets like the Harrier FA.2 or AV-8B+ also makes zero sense. Those jets are slow, but they get Fox-3 AMRAAMs, meaning they can fire and immediately go defensive. The US F-18 is stuck with Fox-1 AIM-7Ms, forcing you to hold a hard radar lock all the way to impact. Trying to guide a Sparrow while a Flanker is throwing Fox-3s or R-27ERs at you is a statistical death sentence.
The compression is even worse when you look at the German premium F-18C. It sits at the exact same 12.7 BR but is an entirely superior block variant with better engine thrust, better radar tracking, AIM-7Ps, and double the countermeasures (120 total). Keeping the US version at the same BR with half the defensive capability and worse flight performance is pure compression.
Bottom line: If Gaijin wants to keep it restricted to early loadouts, it needs to drop to 12.3 so it stops being unplayable food in 13.7 uptiers. If it stays at 12.7, it absolutely needs its historical BOL chaff pods and AIM-9Ms to survive.
I made it work very well in the F/A-18A and CF-118 and never founf 60cms to be an issue at all. Not flying head on into the middle of a furball is very handy for not dying instantly
dont really need to evade that extremely.
forgot its got double. It really needs to be higher, it already has the better FM. but no no germany suffers or something
Gripens compensate for that with cracked FM, almost infinite pool of countermeasures and better RWR. In hands of an average player it will give better results simply because of that.
Not nearly as people claim it to be. This game isn’t balanced for “skilled players” it is balanced for newcomers and people that aren’t putting a lot of effort because those are the most paying customers. Recent F-14D profits is a very solid proof of that.
Easily overcome by having skill, yes. This is exactly what I was talking about, Su-30s have a certain skill floor that a lot of players simply lack
Yo jackass, skill doesn’t magically generate 60 extra countermeasures when you’re completely out of chaff and dodging a wall of active radar missiles. Skill doesn’t make an AIM-7M out-fly an R-27ER in a head-on radar joust. And skill doesn’t change the literal fact that the German F-18 gets double the defense and better engines at the exact same BR.
