I’d say the F-15EX? It would still be reasonably subpar on dogfights, yet AESA + F-15E thrust + HMS + F-15C GE loadout at the very least should be both a nasty and competitive enough kit.
And… it should’ve arrived already?
With how bad AMRAAMS are it won’t be any good.
1 Like
the only thing thats worse than the ammaram is the AIM-54 which also underperforms massively
1 Like
AIM-54 sure is worse than AMRAAMS but i am not considering it as it would not be added to any other US plane. Maybe the super tomcat might get it but no other plane can get it
While they’re certainly not great nor as meta as the MICA or the R-77-1, the A/B variants are still a decent missile… it’s just they don’t have a consistent edge either MICA (TVC + notch gate width) or R-77-1 (Overload + speed) have.
Gaijin could give its historical turn performance to make AIM-120s competitive again as a general-purpose missile, just as it was on day-one Seek and Destroy update, but it’s up to them anyway.
1 Like
More RP, yeah, but 15/20 mins trying to find the last 2 hide and seek players is boring AF, it’s usually too far to RTB and switch to A2G and make it back to bomb bases or ground units and there is an event and SL boxes on and nether SL or score are affected much by match time, especially when that time is spent flying in circles looking for the last few targets.
I would rather just do the 2 or 3 regular matches you can do in the same amount of time.
One of the problem with this is anything given to the USA faction will just trickle to plenty of other jets and factions. Link-16, AWACS, AIM-120D/AIM-9X etc.
First buff the AIM-120-C5 so it isn’t a downgrade to the A/B change it so it has a use.
It’s unintuitive to that it’s both bad at BVR and also WVR.
The only things “special” I can think of off the top of my head are
The legion IRST pod on the F-15C
F-18E IRST
Dragon’s eye + LANTIRN + Sniper F-15E
Giving F-15E sniper + full CMs like shown IRL
Give BOL pods to US jets if another country has it (Controversial but AH-64’s get JAGMs so there is recent precedent for this)
Extra controversial bonuses:
F-16CJ could be introduced with no HARM missiles but with the Raytheon HTS R7 that can GPS target ground radar sources for JDAMs.
Proxy APKWS rounds (because who doesn’t like laser guided head on explosions)
top tier ARB is built on a crappy grind system anyways
Low points for objectives
Furballs galore because it gets points
No high alt (+10km) bvr spawn
Even sim map mission spawns are junk
top tier arcade is war thunder’s version of ace combat and is silly
1 Like
People really don’t like when one plane dominates Air RB which makes complete sense. Lets say we buff AIM-120C to has it used to be in dev server. Will is buff American planes? Absolutely however it would buff the Eurofighter which would make it even more dominating than rafale due to its superior flight model and thrust to weight ratio. People will then complain about it and gaijn might just nerf it AIM-120C again as AIM-120C is used by multiple NATO nation (which gaijin likes to nerf alot)
Now lets focus on American Jets
Only F-15 and F-18 will be affected by this change as they only carry AIM-120C in US tree. and both of these jets have terrible FM imo (cannot say anything about F-15E). F15c loses all of its speed as soon as you turn and we all know how F-18s are. The only good FM plane (which is F-16C) in US tree (IMO) as did not get AIM-120C or even AIM-120B. If they buff AIM-120C and give it to F-16V when ever added, it could compete with rafale then (thats what i think) hence i now truly believe F-16V can only save US in terms of 4.5 gen aircraft or F-18E block III if they give it AIM-174B and not mess it up
3 Likes
Even EA-18G would be interesting whenever they add EW
Nothing wrong with leaving early if the last guys are just space cruising
Well trying to kill the last guy in 10.7 bracket now would almost be impossible if the last guy is in MIG-25 going mach 3 at high altitude unless they are out of fuel
Man, I’ve missed 4 of the task(family stuff)
I wonder if it’s better to buy the task or wait for it to hit the shop
Plane to Plane datalink would also help quite a bit
1 Like
Grinding during holiday season is quit tough. Luckily i managed to only miss 2 task for MIG-25 but sadly i missed 3 task for the ground vehicle :(
It would definitely help but i wonder if they will implement that any time soon
1 Like
Yep exactly which is why I lead off with
One of the problem with this is anything given to the USA faction will just trickle to plenty of other jets and factions.
I do think that gaijin needs to pick a lane for the AIM-120C5’s. Make them good for WVR or make them good for BVR.
The F-18C isn’t bad, it’s my main jet and I do okay with it. It’s definitely not the best. But that’s what you get for a jack of all trades that feels tuned for low speed dogfights. Neither of those are what ARB is. GRB CAS/CAP yes it’s deadly.
100% with you on the “where’s the top tier F-16” train
AIM-174B is just a bandage over the AIM-120-C5/C7 not having adequate bvr performance. The AIM-120D would be a stopgap before adding the AIM-174B. Then again… the rafale/eurofighter would get it too.
You could fix missiles, but then you extend those buffs to other nations with your own missiles.
You could also introduce the AIM-174B for the Super Hornet as a stopgap measure until either the AIM-120C-5 gets fixed (and the issue of lesser FMs becomes glaringly apparent) or newer AMRAAM variants gets added.
The F-15EX is the only non-5th gen aircraft that comes to mind, with its full, technically capable loadout of checks notes 22 (and in some less reliable sources, 24?) AMRAAMs.
Except it would… massively.
‘Some advantages over them’ the advantages: no RWR warning from F-22 itself until very close, it literally being not just a stealth fighter but one of, if not the best stealth fighter, also faster than the f-15e in terms of pure acceleration. Oh, and the option to completely or partly negate your stealth by going full beast mode with your loadout while retaining some of that sweet, sweet flight performance (because we all know someone will do that).
iirc, it’s top speed, loft profile and cruise altitude? It should be Mach 5, loft up to 80-100k feet and cruise until diving down (similar-ish to R-37 in that regard).
AIM-120s should all have a seeker slightly better than the MICA does according to this bug report. It’s only 1 degree smaller FoV/notch gate width (which is what beam width is, in this context), but yeah. This would mean every AMRAAM-capable jet would see a BR increase regardless of flight performance (similar to why Mirage 2000-5Fs were moved up to 14.0 minimum because of MICA)
As for turn performance, I still haven’t heard an actual, plausible explanation as to why the AIM-120C-5 should have a higher max overload (or at the very least, turn performance immediately off the rail/low guidance delay) than the previous iterations of AMRAAM with larger control surfaces.
It would, primarily for US because you dont have a singular jet either in-game currently or in the future with radars with high FoR like other jets do currently.
I should also mention that this datalink capability will most likely be here for other nation’s as well, so…
1 Like
That would be when they don’t nerf it to the ground
They would get meteors, which if not nerfed should be better than AIM-120D if the seeker is better (i will have to check that). If both have same seeker then there might be no difference as maps are small enough that their range won’t matter
Seeker is identical to them, I’d assume. There’s not much proof out there of MBDA running around saying “METEOR HAS AESA SEEKER” (although one is in the works for the meteor, not currently implemented or tested yet, afaik). The only difference is propulsion system (which is also better).
If AMRAAMS remain how they are how would F-15EX be any better? Also i don’t think gaijin will give it 22 missile like it is suppose to carry on paper (still have not seen any f15ex carrying missile more than 12)