New to the Russian fighters

I play a lot in the F-15 and I know how to fight BVR well, I've gotten pretty good flying the Eagle. But lots of people have told me that the Eagle is too easy and that I should fly the Sukhois and MiGs. I personally dislike the Russian rwr and the constant, ridiculous way that the Russian planes always want to go 20 degrees nose up, but I decided to give it a shot.

My question is:

Are different tactics used when flying the Flanker/Fulcrum vs the Eagle? What tactics work in the Eagle but not in the Flanker and vice versa?

INB4 all the Spamram comments lol.

Flanker has the super-sneaky IRST mode and a helmet-mounted sight which are quite nifty.

The R73 is not to be disregarded either!

Also you can chuck in a little A-G if you feel like a change. I quite like flying the Flanker.

INB4 all the Spamram comments lol.

 

Flanker has the super-sneaky IRST mode and a helmet-mounted sight which are quite nifty.

The R73 is not to be disregarded either!

Also you can chuck in a little A-G if you feel like a change. I quite like flying the Flanker.

But is it a good bvr fighter? Or is it better to get close and initiate a dogfight?

I play a lot in the F-15 and I know how to fight BVR well, I've gotten pretty good flying the Eagle. But lots of people have told me that the Eagle is too easy and that I should fly the Sukhois and MiGs.

 

Eagle has own features that it shouldn't have, like the Sukhois and Migs has as well.... That is the problem as well, and that we don't really have the realism in the BVR as we don't have even fraction of the realism when it comes to radars.

 

I personally dislike the Russian rwr and the constant, ridiculous way that the Russian planes always want to go 20 degrees nose up, but I decided to give it a shot.

 

Trim.... It can be strange to realize that example Mig-29 has very physical workload for the pilot, while the Su-27S has FBW you need a FF joystick to experience the feeling to fly such as trimming button centers stick nicely and keeps it there.

 

And what comes to RWR, those has unrealistic benefit there as currently you can spot every unit in the ground that has radar if they have radar enabled, even when they are not pointing at it to you or wouldn't have it enabled to paint you. So many russian SAM system is designed so that only at the last seconds does the radar beam paint you and then it is already too late for the pilots to do anything if not reacting on that second correctly.

 

Then we don't have the intelligence briefings before flight where the known ground threats are marked and informed the possibilities of threats if unknown locations. We don't have the GCI that would be telling soviet pilots the very accurate overall picture based information that is required on the moment, and then pilots using the RWR only for the main threats and keeping a big picture in simple manner.

 

Like now we have the Viggen that we could use to locate the ground threats and then get such data delivered to pilots before they start taxing.

 

My question is:

 

Are different tactics used when flying the Flanker/Fulcrum vs the Eagle? What tactics work in the Eagle but not in the Flanker and vice versa?

 

Very different ones really. The Soviet pilots got a direct line to GCI that had very exact overall picture what is happening and they guided pilots to engagements and even could track well all in the dog fights.

 

http://imgur.com/4awB6RO

 

Everything is subtle to change once we start to get a WIP missiles, you fly with human GCI and we would get radars simulated even half-way as suppose to be...

But is it a good bvr fighter? Or is it better to get close and initiate a dogfight?

The Flanker is capable at BVR. I don't fly it very differently from the F-15. The missiles are less reliable overall though. The ER will go for chaff more easily than the AIM-120, but the AIM-7 is more on par seeker wise. As with any plane it's best to shoot at someone that can't shoot back, but if you have to go head to head know that you are at a disadvantage at long range. Just outside of WVR, active AIM-120's will allow F-15's to evade your fire while shooting back. You may want to rely on terrain to shield yourself from their missiles in this case.

The ET and R-73 are good weapons to have because of their stealthiness and in the latter case, it's agility combined with HMS.

I haven't flown the Flanker online in a long time, but there may be issues with the datalink in multiplayer. When it works and is available, it's a huge advantage for the Su-27 and possibly the best SA tool available. Use it to find enemy aircraft without giving yourself away on RWR's.

Flying Su-33 here.

Sometimes contacts disappear from radar. Sometimes radars can't see contacts right infront of you despite turning radar antenna up and down left or right.

ER missiles are not reliable at long distance so you may need to shoot a few missiles at a highly maneuverable target.

ETs are sneaky but got only 2 of them.

Lacking of GCI is a bummer so using F10 is close to using GCI assuming that it is enabled in map.

Su-25 is a lots of fun as long as you got an adequate fighter cover available.

I would argue that the capabilities of the FC3 jets are neutered compared to their RW counterparts, not superior as you seem to think. 8 target TWS and super search, anyone? JHMCS for the F-15?

GCI and interflight datalink information, as you've noted, for the Russian birds.

You will also indeed have to be illuminated by a RADAR for the Beryoza to pick it up. Put terrain between you and a SAM system and watch it disappear. Set the AI to "excellent" and two very simple switched triggers will make an air defense site perform much more realistically. Create a trigger zone around its WEZ. Part of coalition in zone (OPFOR, WEZ), alarm red ROE weapon free. All of coalition out of zone, alarm green ROE weapon hold. They will then only turn on when a blue flight is within their WEZ. The pieces are there but it's up to the mission designer to put the work in and program realistic behavior.

As far as information and intel, that's up to players to communicate with each other, prepare briefings, fly recon flights. The infrastructure is all there but the "work" parts don't do themselves. If you expect you're going to be able to jump in to a complex process anywhere you want and have everything done for you yeah, you're going to be disappointed.

I play a lot in the F-15 and I know how to fight BVR well, I've gotten pretty good flying the Eagle. But lots of people have told me that the Eagle is too easy and that I should fly the Sukhois and MiGs. I personally dislike the Russian rwr and the constant, ridiculous way that the Russian planes always want to go 20 degrees nose up, but I decided to give it a shot.

 

My question is:

 

Are different tactics used when flying the Flanker/Fulcrum vs the Eagle? What tactics work in the Eagle but not in the Flanker and vice versa?

The biggest difference in the Flanker is that you'll have to guide any radar missile all the way into the target with a hard lock. Neither of the R-27R variants will self guide. So you are limited in the degree to which you can angle off in order to maintain contact. So unlike the F-15, you can't wait for your missile to go pitbull and, then, turn completely away. Other than that, use of countermeasures and maneuvering are more or less the same.

As for the MiGs, I seldom fly them and, so, have little to offer other than that they do have an ARH missile available, the R-77.

Two days ago I shot down a F-15 with a R-73 in WVR combat, launched off boresight, the missile turned 160 degrees back! will post the tacview video tonight

Recommend reading the guide from this post:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2520294&postcount=1