What a lot of people forget about is that SIM whoever can dictate engagement wins.
Vixen excels at that just because first of all it have Radar with IFF. That alone in Sim at BR where most planes do not have radars or RWR is huge advantage.
Speed is other thing. Playing when 8.3 is top BR is just like clamping your balls. Sure you can do it but it wont be fun. No nation except US F3D, France early Voutour and Israel Meteor have similar abilities.
Which means all nations relly only on Eyeball Mk.I to spot.
Good luck defending against Vixen who finds you on radar, dips below your nose and fires missile from below your tail.
I haven’t played with Red Tops in a while but don’t they have absolutely atrocious range and can be out turned with ease?
From what I can gather the main complaint is that the Vixen is killing you without you seeing it… but in the scenario that an aircraft approaches your low 6 without you seeing it you’ll be gunned down anyways. “It’s the one you don’t see that gets you”.
On another note isn’t this the exact same way that F-104’s fly? Granted it fights aircraft with flares (not all however) but it has missiles with greater range off memory and at the end of the day once again if you don’t see the F-104 behind you then you won’t be flaring anyways.
The range was greatly improved a while back. And the problem isn’t that the Sea Vixen can kill you if you’re unaware (though the fact that it has all the tools to do that at a BR where people aren’t otherwise likely to encounter threats that can engage from further than 1000m doesn’t help), the problem is that even if you do know it’s there, there’s nothing anything at the BR can do about it. The Sea Vixen has so much performance relative to literally everything else that it gets to operate with total impunity.
When fired from a Lightning, maybe…. I’ve been hit in the face by Sea-Vixen-fired ‘’’rear aspect’’’ Red Tops after breaking into them through >90 degrees.
None of the UK 8.7s come close to the Sea Vixen in overall capability:
Scimitar. The Scimitar is also a carrier-based strike fighter able to carry 4 missiles with similar air-ground loadouts and top speed 13 kts faster. Probably closest to Sea Vixen in ability.
Pros:
Has guns (which you’ll struggle to ever get on target due to atrocious handling)
Cons:
Missiles are worse - 9Bs
No radar/IFF - ranging radar only.
No RWR.
Javelin. The Javelin is also superficially similar to the Sea Vixen, carrying 4 missiles and radar/IFF (although a near-useless radar last time I looked at it). If anyone really doesn’t know why Javelin is the inferior aircraft…
Pros:
Has cannon - mounted in the wings with convergence issues.
Has afterburner… which only works above 20k ft.
Cons:
No air-ground loadouts.
No RWR.
Slower, way slower, 50 kts slower.
Missiles are worse.
Losses all E with any manoeuvre.
Falls out of the sky with any hit.
Swift F.7. The Swift hasn’t got much in common with the Sea Vixen and is 16 kts slower.
Pros:
Has cannon.
Missiles might be more ‘fun.’
Cons:
No radar/IFF.
No RWR.
Fewer and worse missiles - useless in any kind of manoeuvre.
No air-ground loadouts.
Even at 9.0 the Hunter F.1 is a bit slower, has no missiles at all, has no radar/IFF, has no RWR. To find anything undoubtedly ‘better’ in the British TT you need to go to the Harrier GR.3 at 9.3 (though it lacks the SA that comes with radar/IFF) or the Lightning F.6 at 9.7 (lacks any air-ground loadouts).
Looking back down the TT… Yeah, the Sea Venom at 8.0 sure is ‘just a bit’ worse than the Sea Vixen at 8.3… Would you like to buy a bridge?
this is true. sometimes albeit rarely, the red top can make a front aspect kill
earlier i had some talk here about the sea vixen still performing well at the heightened battle rating of 9.0 realistic battles, as i currently am flying this plane myself i can confirm it. therefore i suggest heightening the battlerating in simulator battles too.
Sea Vixens are obscenely fast for 8.3 and can do that for free, without any risk of ever dying thanks to its objectively higher speed and high TWR.
At 9.7+ they see missiles that can actually reach them while outrunning an enemy - Sea Vixen doesn’t. At 9.7 those 104s only get 9Bs which are worse than Red Tops in every way.
Not to mention that while the F-104 can outrun everything it faces, it can’t quite out-accelerate everything and if it turns, it dies. Sea Vixen compared to everything it’s matched with is faster, with better acceleration, and more than enough performance in turns to just not care.