Should the Yak-38 be at a higher BR? Probably
Can the Yak-38 move to a higher BR currently? Maybe 9.7
Hunter F6 with 4x SRAAM and Harrier Gr3 with 2x 9G both at 9.7 are maybe on a similar level in terms of performance to the Yak-38 (if you ignore the CMs on the Gr3). So maybe the Yak-38 could be at 9.7
but ultimately Its a compression issue. Simple. a LOT of aircraft struggle at and around that BR simply struggle because there is too much squished into that bracket.
I was trying to not be that guy but, you might want to look at his stat card.
3 rank 7s with max br of 10.3 with the f11a. Also US main which fully explains wanting 6 aim9js at 9.3. Or 4 aim9ls at 9.3 before finding that they werent “only 25g”
I’ve had a few good fights recently, though that was in SB. That being said. Yes and no.
In its current state, its really bad in RB. I tried it a few times, and man, it sucked. The lack of CMs really mean you are 9L food. But the SRAAMs are underperforming hard right now. So im still holding out hope they’ll get fixed, even if they dont get all-aspect and only good side aspect again, the F6 could be quite good at that BR
1: the R-60 is rear aspect. The R-60M is all Aspect.
2: the Yak-38 is a fricken bus, it loses to a harrier in a dogfight.
3: the F3H-2 is a very maneuverable platform from my experience, and can hold its own in dogfights easily and has a nice rate fight. The only sad thing about it is some low acceleration and under subsonic top speed at sea level.
4: the Aim-9L is an all aspect 30G missile, with beyond double the range of a R-60/R-60M. Anything flareless will die. That why it’s on the A-10 at a minimum BR of 10.0.
Even though the Yak-38 has R-60s, most matches are uptiers and full uptiers, where its lack of flares lets it get slammed by anything since even a harrier could slot in behind it arguably. The F3H-2 has 4 Aim-9Bs and can easily get its nose on target to use them as makeshift flares against any all aspect slingers, while also being able to dogfight and rate fight whatever you come across even in uptiers with it massive wings and great flaps. The Yak-38 is nothing short of a brick. It’s a missile bus and nothing more, and implodes at the mention of a all aspect missile heading its way.
Remember when sraams where considered the peak of op missles? At least the hunter is no longer at a high enough br where it was basically fighting top tier
He is not doing that well comparing them either. He said the aim9l’s all aspect lock was shorter than the r6p’s lock. Last i checked, 3km is further than 0km
Yeah, I remember doing a summer event, maybe for the Buc S1, in the hunter f6 and it was 10.3. Damn that was hard work. (though that was before all-aspect missiles were a thing I think)
But SRAAMs have had nerf after nerf (though I dont think they were all intentional, part of me thinks the last major nerf was because they simply forgot to update the SRAAM with the new missile aerodynamics added at the end of 2022)
But they have a lot of potential for a missile and would like to see them added to other stuff when fixed/buffed. would be fun on a Hawk, Jaguar and maybe even stuff like the Phantoms or Tornado (all slated to get them, though only the Jaguar has decent evidence of maybe being actually equipped with them)
There was rumours of an SRAAM and Red Top Overhaul planned, with SRAAM being up first way back in June and they might have had some work, not seen any do the crazy zig-zagging i did this time a year ago, ive also not really used them much of late, but getting back into the F6 in SB, so we’ll see. But Flame found some epic stuff in the national archives for them and they should have double the range and even all-aspect.
They need to take everything between 9.3 and 12.7 and spread it out over a few more BRs. There are a lot of 9.7s in my opinion they almost need to go down but cant
Im hoping June we might see the start of a decompress. With air and ground tied together. So many aircraft are virtually impossible to balance for both. With that Split BR coming. Things can start to move more freely and we might finally begin to see a decompression happen. At first it will be slow, likely moving some of those 10.3 all aspect slingers up to 10.7 or a few low performance CAS down 0.3 BR like the Tornado and Jaguar, but in time. Id hope they almost insert an entire BR in at 10.0. Just move everything 10.3+ up a full BR and then adjust things down. Eventually maybe getting a proper decompress of the full BR range
The Yak-38 cannot reach 1450km/h in a straight line, it does not have an M61 with 750 rounds, and it cannot outaccelerate and outclimb every vehicle at its BR.
Hell, the F-104 can destroy the Yak-38 in a turnfight, too.
What? The AIM-9J is far superior to the R-60, it’s equivalent to the R-60M. R-60 is equivalent to the AIM-9G which wouldn’t ya know is the missile found on the Harriers. Vehicles .3 higher with extremely similar flight performance down to VTOL capabilities, but with countermeasures which is a pretty huge deal for an aircraft that attracts missiles like a CAS post attracts ULQ Lover.
