Please remember that this is an opinion piece and please treat it as such, as its only my opinion.
Let me preface this by saying that I am very excited for the F-117, its one of my favorite planes and seeing it in the trailer for Firebirds got me the most excited i’ve been for a video game since Halo Infinite released (i’m a massive halo fan). So you can’t even imagine the hype I was feeling when I heard it was at 8.7 for realistic, only for those feelings to be squashed when I later heard that it was going to be 10.0 for ground rb. Below I will argue some points for why I believe it should be lower than 10.0.
Lets go over the obvious strengths of the Nighthawk. Its very stealthy and has a very low rcs (0.001 to be exact) which will make it hard to detect by most radars. Its got 2 very good bombs it can drop (GBU-16’s if I am not mistaken). As well as its very good performance at night, which is its preferred environment to be flown in. These factors combined make it a very capable aircraft for bombing.
However it also has some downsides as well, in regards to its performance as well as its role as a bomber. First off its very slow and sluggish, Lockheed had to make major design concessions in exchange for making it as stealthy as possible. It cannot go supersonic and it handles like a pig, making it very vulnerable if a fighter gets close or a missiles gains lock. Speaking of missiles it also has no countermeasures, making getting detected a death sentence for even some of the best nighthawk pilots. Obviously it has no offensive armament (except for a few unconfirmed stories of pilots attaching sidewinders to the rails in the bomb bay) so it cannot defend itself in a dogfight. It also can only carry 2 bombs, which is a bit lackluster for 10.0.
Now lets talk about the real issue with the nighthawk, br placement and its role on the battlefield. The nighthawk in grb is at 10.0, and after the recent changes the 10.3 lineup got raised to 10.7, meaning that the nighthawk will more often than not face vastly superior planes and also anti air that surpass it in both bombing capability and detection capability. This results in an aircraft with lackluster performance for the br along with lackluster payload for the br. But lets still go over some CAS planes that are better than it at a similar br.
A-10: slightly better performance alongside massive improvement in payload. It can carry mavericks, gbu’s, has a gun, countermeasures, and aa missiles. (10.7)
A-7d/e: better performance with a better and larger payload, it lacks agms but that should not be much of an issue for a skilled pilot. It has a gun, countermeasures, as well as aa missiles. (10.3) (10.7)
F-111a: incredible flight performance alongside a massive payload. It has a gun, countermeasures, missiles, maws, rwr. (10.7)
Su-25: very good flight performance with a good payload despite being quite heavy, has very trolly armor, countermeasures, a gun, aa missiles, agms, and an assortment of unguided munitions. (10.3)
So in conclusion the F-117 will be a lackluster aircraft with very little impact on the battlefields of 10.0 and above. Its main advantage of stealth will not make much of a difference against both spaa and planes present at those tiers, and the advantage of flying at night will be useless as the majority of the playerbase do not play night battles. The way I personally would fix this is by lowering the br to either 9.0 or 9.3, where its main advantage of stealth actually will be useful, instead of just a hinderance to its performance.
Please remember this is just my opinion, any constructive criticism is welcome, and please keep it civil.
