GAR-8 air to air missles have overly excessive drag

Yesterday the virtual F-86 Sabre squadron I fly with tried out the GAR-8 for the first time in the Korea! 1952 server. With the missile fitted we all experienced excessive drag and had significant difficulty in getting speeds above .75 mach at any altitude. Turn performance was also severely affected.

One of our squadron flew CAC Sabres during his time in the Royal Australia Airforce (RAAF) and his experience was that there was minimal drag when loaded with Sidewinders.

I think the drag caused by the GAR-8s needs to be tweeked down a bit.

For information, our virtual squadron has been flying the F-86 twice or more each week in the Korea! 1952 server for over a year now so we are reasonably familiar with its flight performance under all loadout conditions.

If there are any MiG-15 jockeys out there who wish to test their skills then we can be found on the Korea! 1952 server at 2400Z on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Can confirm, I have noticed this too. Even with just the launchers on without the missiles the jet struggles to go above Mac .85 or so at sea level. I find it hard to believe that the weapon stations alone would affect performance like that.

Yes, the problem seems to be the launchers, not the GAR-8 itself. TO-1F-86-F has the coefficient of drag for all the weapons and the launch rails and if I remember the GAR-8 and launch rails was less than the bomb. Take two Sabres one with bombs and one with GAR-8 and see which will go faster...

Take two Sabres one with bombs and one with GAR-8 and see which will go faster...

Never done that before; thanks for that pointer. It's actually a little hilarious.

Stores drag seems to be an issue in DCS as a whole. The Hornet has various issues with A2G vs A2A loadout drag and I've often felt that drag as a whole seems high on some modules when loaded with weapons. It probably needs a revamp, or at the very least some tweaking.