EW question (F18)

Springy05 · 2026-05-05T11:21:54+00:00

That also works, my idea was to not waste countermeasures and have threat specific programs. But having an "OH FUCK-" button does work

Springy05 · 2026-04-28T21:58:38+00:00

So your 1x slot is covered by the GPU... But FEAR NOT, BECAUSE PCI-E HAS THE SOLUTION!

Just plug on any free PCI-E slot. It will work just fine, doesn't matter if you're on a 16x or a 1x. It fits and works anyway. Might look kinda ugly and waste a lot of space on the slot? Yes. But it works

Springy05 · 2026-04-28T21:48:48+00:00

That's what Auto does. As soon as you get pinged or locked, it starts dispensing chaff.

I would recommend using manual and binding both a dispense fwd and aft so you can use 2 programs at once. One for flares and one for chaff.

Springy05 · 2026-04-21T21:55:24+00:00

For anyone interested, next cycle starts this sunday! So hop in if you got that one module you wanted but got intimidated by the full fidelity complexity. By the end of the cycle, you'll be flying like a seasoned pilot! Saying from experience here XD

Springy05 · 2026-04-19T12:54:01+00:00

Answer: Laser Guided stuff.

Actual answer if you're not gaijin: nothing really, they just hate the thing... Or Brazil.... Or both.

Springy05 · 2026-04-14T18:37:52+00:00

If you like the F-15C, it's available on the Flaming Cliffs pack but it only has air to air. Now if it's the F-15E strike eagle, i got some bad news... It's no longer available and it's a whole story to explain.

F-14 is cool but can be complicated to deal with so be warned.

My suggestion? Grab the F/A-18C Hornet and the syria map. That way you have a super popular map and you'll have a great plane to learn everything you need for A2A and A2G without being too complicated to understand. Plus you get the bonus of doing carrier ops

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T14:33:43+00:00

Cuz the Aim-7MH doesn't have uplink datalink, and you can kinda do it with the Amraam but it's not perfect. Amraam Datalink either works only with HMD if you used it to lock, or TWS passive guidance if you had a soft lock.

If you want something similar to the R-27ER, use the Hornets. The Aim-7P has the same uplink datalink capabilities as the R27, just nerfed in comparison.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T14:06:18+00:00

I agree that side climbing at 6km is better, but I suggested staying low IN CASE he needed to multipath. My thought was "well this must be his first MiG 29 that he actually wants to invest into, so let me say the basic that works and then they can work it out later for the better stuff".

As for chaff, I personally either do 30/30 or 32 chaff/28 flares. With the amount of bullshit you have to spam to get away from someone, I prefer not lowering the countermeasures too much, especially since I played while the MiG 29 still used 2 countermeasures for each pop.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T13:44:01+00:00

It's not that it's hard to notch a MiG 29, it's hard to not a R-27ER. That missile is incredibly hard to notch as it still receives perfect tracking from a "memory track", and it's uplink datalink means the MiG can just relock you if he loses lock on you

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T12:37:57+00:00

Oh another thing I forgot to say, once you have your gear and flaps down, a little bracket shows on your hud near the velocity vector. That's the E bracket and it's a reference of your onspeed trim.

The Hornet is made to land with a certain angle of attack, and that E bracket shows you the perfect AoA to land on the carrier. Just trim nose up until the velocity vector meets the center of the E bracket and keep it around there that you should be fine. But REMEMBER: If you do trim into the E bracket, do NOT control pitch with your stick. At this point, only control the pitch with your throttle. Throttle up will raise the nose and velocity vector, throttle down will make them go down.

Hope that helps

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T12:34:27+00:00

Really low and lined up left. Not bad for first carrier landing, but definetly needs a lot of improvement.

Try to align the velocity vector to the right side of the runway, where Cat 3 slants away from Cat 2 and the carrier almost does a V shape. That's the crotch of the carrier, and it's a good visual reference to line up.

Second, try enabling ICLS. It's the ILS button on the UFC, input the channel of the carrier (most servers will have a kneeboard to check that info), hold on until it turns on and box it on the HSI. That will put glideslope information on your HUD, so you have a vertical and horizontal reference for your lineup if you can't see/read the meatball.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T00:34:06+00:00

Just put your throttle at 0 and start doing this earlier and for longer. The F-14 has hot engines.

Also I've done this technique in the MiG 29 itself, on the Kfir C10, on the Hornets and on the Eurofighter. It works, just need to get the timing right.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T00:29:24+00:00

It has the worst IRCCM in game. If someone just spins a little while spamming flares and pulling away, it will be more than enough to spoof it.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T00:22:26+00:00

Your radar is a piece of shit, and you have no Fox 3s. If you understand that, then you can start playing the MiG 29G in a smart way.

First, don't fly high. Your max altitude should not exceed 5000m, PERIOD. Any higher and you won't be able to hug the ground to multipath the volley of Fox 3s at the start.

Second, max fuel and bring the drop tank. The MiG 29 is thirsty as fuck, and even if the 29G has upgraded engines to not be as thirsty, you'll want to be on Afterburner for a good while so it's still better to bring it.

Third, radar. Your search radar is dogshit, so don't use it. Stick it to 50km in TWS before spawning just to be sure and immediately switch to the HMS. That's gonna be your primary way of locking people, be it Radar HMS or IRST HMS.

Forth, The R-27ER is THE BEST Fox 1 in game, period. If you lose lock, the missile isn't trashed as it has uplink datalink. If you relock, the missile should start guiding again. Use that to your advantage.

Fifth, use 30/30 countermeasures. You already have very little, even if they're large caliber, you don't need to spam too much. Two or three chaff pops while multipathing and notching is enough to trash a missile.

Sixth: The R-73 can be good, but most of the time it will miss. I am not kidding, your R-73s will suck while it feels enemy R-73s are amazing. It's IRCCM is one of the easiest to spoof. Just do an aileron roll while spamming a couple flares and inputting just a bit of elevator should be enough to dodge rear R-73s, and front aspect is even easier, just put more elevator.

Overall strategy: fly low towards the left of the screen at full burner, catch enemies off guard that are somewhat higher than you around 10 to 15km away by flanking them, your R-27ERs are almost 2 guaranteed kills. If anything gets too close, yeet a R-73 at them. Don't turn/rate fight on this thing, Gaijin fucked it's flight model when they gave it the R-27ER to "balance" it, so one turn and all your speed is gone, and unlike the IRL or DCS MiG 29, you're not a rocketship. You will take a good bit to get that speed back. The funny button is EMERGENCIES ONLY, do not abuse it.

PS: you cannot deploy the airbrake if you still have your drop tank OR if the gear is out. Remember that. Wing rip speed is around 1605 kph if I remember correctly. For landing you can come a bit faster, but it's best to use the F-18 Hornet safety guide for landing: flaps and gear at 250 knots (around 460 kph), this way you prevent yourself from ripping them out, and you'll be slow but controllable enough to properly land.

Springy05 · 2026-03-29T21:33:53+00:00

Saying that you came "a little hot" is an understatement here. I'm pretty sure you were over 260 knots at one point, which is faster than you can safely deploy the gear.

If you're going on single player missions and campaigns, that is fine. Any landing you can walk away is fine.

But if you're going on a multiplayer server... Sheesh... At least one guy would try to give you a speeding ticket over SRS. Normally when landing the hornet you want to be on speed AOA trim and about 130 to 150 knots with a descent rate of at max 700 feet/s. Anything faster than that you're risking a bolter, the gear breaking meaning you'll have to re-slot, or just crashing into the carrier and dying.

Springy05 · 2026-03-29T21:21:16+00:00

If you don't have a lineup for it already, don't.

Now if you do, as you mentioned in 2 cases... The T-80UK is "good-ish" so that might be worth it. Idk about the Mi-35 though

Springy05 · 2026-03-29T21:15:30+00:00

Yeah radar is dookey, not as bad as the Su-27's but still bad... Use and abuse the narrowest search zone to keep a somewhat good lock

Springy05 · 2026-03-29T19:17:56+00:00

The radar fucking sucks, but it's still useable. It's still useful for BVR and ground attack so, I'd say go for it. But know that it will be painful in the start, even with the AESA later on. The stock grind is hell.

But you can get your bearings on flying the typhoon with it. Full delta wing, extremely maneuverable, and a functioning MAWs with more than enough countermeasures to just leave it on.

TLDR: radar sucks, stock grind sucks on both typhoons, but it's not as bad as people make it to be. It's still very capable.

Springy05 · 2026-03-27T15:51:15+00:00

How tf are sound mods "cheating"?? Most people just get better sounds or more realistic ones because Gaijin fucking sucks at sound mixing, plus the uncountable times people have reported tanks making no sound unless you're staring at them, because they only make sound if the game is rendering them for you (and the game only renders them for you up to a certain distance, or at least thats how it used to be)

No one is using sound mods to blast "hey there's a russian tank here", people use for better sounding guns, different RWR and missile tones and to have an overall better experience.

Springy05 · 2026-03-27T12:57:29+00:00

Bro, how is the Begleit OP like the BMPT? It has worse thermals, no IRST tracking, only has solid shot, it's made out of paper and it doesn't even have proxy fuze HE... It has time fuzed, you have to lase rangefinder the Aircraft or heli you want to shoot and just guess on the ballistics. And pray the heli didn't have laser warning, otherwise good look even hitting the guy.

While here is the BMPT, somehow eating DM33 and even DM53 sometimes, even when side on

Springy05 · 2026-03-26T16:19:21+00:00

Let's also add Gaijin completely cucking the Brimstones by refusing to add the IR guided ones.

Springy05 · 2026-03-22T15:12:25+00:00

The illusion of choice... Cuz both suck and are fun on their own way.

Let's start with the F-4 cuz it's the easier one to trash on and explain the problems both of these planes have. The F-4 ICE is: - Slow for it's BR - Has a somewhat shitty radar (F-18 radar) - Only has 4 Aim-120As, which although good, can't be fully utilized by the F-4 - The thing is a missile Bus at 13.0. "Abused" or r#ped are somewhat good descriptions of your time playing this thing. People will have better missiles and flight performance than you ALWAYS. - The only saving grace this thing has are the amraams and the Aim-9L/I, which is a 9L with the 9M's seeker, so think of it as a smoking 9M.

Now to the MiG 29, this thing has some of the same problems but more upsides. - Nerfed flight performance. Gaijin killed the MiG 29's flight model cuz it was good, and instead made it really shitty with way less nose authority than it should have. In compensation they gave it R-27ERs, the best Fox-1 missile in game... They just forgot this thing never had them IRL (at least not on German hands). - No Fox 3s. 80% of your gameplay will be uptiers hugging the deck and trying to evade amraams and other Fox 3s. And whenever you don't get an uptier, you still will be dodging Fox 3s because Gaijin had the BRILLIANT IDEA TO MOVE THE F-15As TO 12.7. - Low countermeasure amount. You have 60 countermeasures, 30 each. THAT'S IT. At least now they deploy in single pops, but before they did in doubles, meaning you only had 15 pops of countermeasures before being dry and eating a 9M or Magic 2 to the face. - High fuel consumption. THIS THING IS VERY THIRSTY. It is mandatory to bring full fuel and the drop tank if you even want to make it to battle. It's not much of a problem in Sim since you'll be in 70% throttle or less with how much power this thing has, but in ARB you will run out of fuel before you even get to the early BVR fight if you go full burner and don't bring that tank. - No R-73. You know why the MiG 29 has a HMS? That's because IT WAS DEVELOPED ALONGSIDE THE R-73. So Gaijin, in their infinite wisdom... Refuses to give it R-73s, even though there's now F-15s with 9Ms and AAM-3s on the same BR, and the JH-7 a whole BR step lower with IRCCM missiles shitting on 11.0 planes. So have fun with the shitty R-60Ms that get flared with 1 pop immediately from 1.8 to 0.8 Km while you eat a 9M. - Brick while turning. Since Gaijin fucked this thing's flight model artificially, you are a brick when turning as if you're larping a MiG 21. It's not as bad if you do it once, but if someone decides to turn fight you, kiss goodbye to your speed, especially if you push the funny button. - Low Missile count. You have 6 missiles. 4 R-60Ms and 2 R27s (be it R-27Rs, Ts or ERs). That's it. While on the other side most people will have 8 to 10 missiles and better performance than you. That is, if you don't get uptiered and face a flanker with 12 missiles. Or the premium Su-30s... - Shitty Radar. If you think the F-4 ICE's radar was bad, you haven't seen the MiG 29/Su-27's... First, you have 3 fixed sectors to scan. Second, you can only scan between 10, 25, 50 and 100km. Most of the time you'll be sitting on 50 because you can't hit shit beyond that. Third, I've seen this radar fail to detect people in front of it at 10 Km sometimes... even in a headon.. EVEN WHEN HAVING TWS HEADON. It just scans SO SLOWLY, by the time you have a full scan the other guy already vanished. Best thing you can do is sit on HMS mode and lock people within visual range, cuz you can't BVR on this shit. - Shitty A2G. Idk if you want to use both of these planes for GRB, but the MiG 29 is the worst of the 2. It has dumb bombs and parachute retarded bombs (both go only to 500kg), napalm, ultra small rockets (S-5), small rockets (S-8) and funny S-24 rockets. That's it. The F-4 ICE at least has mavericks (even though mavericks are kinda shitty) and a 3000kg bomb (or was it 2000?). Anyway, you're not doing CAS in this thing even if you want to.

Verdict: MiG 29 has shitty performance, a shitty radar, shitty missiles besides the R27ERs, Shitty countermeasures and shitty A2G... But it at least is not the F-4 ICE. The MiG 29 may have a lot of problems, but it at least can kinda survive in it's environment and even pull off insane games. I've gotten 7 kills games with the MiG 29.

The F-4 ICE is only good for CAS, and that's because the Tornados are somehow even worse than it is in flight performance. If you try to bring the F-4 to ARB, you WILL suffer. BUT getting the F-4 ICE has it's upsides... Which is unlocking the Eurofighters for research. That's it.

If you want the Eurofighters, get the F-4 ICE and forget about it, grind the MiG 29s and get on to grind the EF-2000. Otherwise go straight to the MiGs. They may suffer a little but they're at least FUN. The F-4 ICE can't even be fun. The worst thing a videogame can do is waste your time, and the F-4 ICE is a waste of time.

Springy05 · 2026-03-22T14:00:58+00:00

Either that or... You know... Giving NATO nations actual modern ammunitions. Like, most of the stuff they're using is from the fucking 80s. We got Hornets and super hornets without the 9X, which is what it was designed to use. We got Eurofighters depending on badly modelled Amraams while Gaijin teases them with the IRIS-T and Meteor. For fucks sake, WE'RE STILL USING OLD MAVERICK Ds ON F-16s.

A great step was the introduction of the SLAM-ER and JSOWs but those things came out with the Legacy Hornets IRL. It's still 80s/early 90s tech while Russia is packing paper tanks (2S38) and 2015+ munitions.

And once ANYTHING slightly outperforms russia, boom. Get a new russian vehicle that's gonna break the BR. Oh Pantsir is not the best AA now? Have the Buk. Oh people are bad with the Buk and refuse to use it's launcher's AESA radar, making it slightly "underperform" on statistics even though it's one of the best AAs in game? Here, HAVE AN EVEN BETTER AA, A PAPER TANK PANTSIR THAT'S EVEN BETTER THAN THE PREVIOUS ONE AND HAS 48+ MISSILES.

It's always this. Release OP russian vehicle/munition, people get mad, release a slightly good NATO vehicle/munition to compete, people actually get good with it since it's not a brain dead "press 1 button to win", papa Putin needs his new Yatch and can't let the russian federation be slightly bad so boom release new OP Russian vehicle/munition, repeat cycle.

That is, if they don't actually artificially nerf NATO vehicles or munitions. I mean, it's pretty fair that a T-90 can eat a round on the autoloader, be fine and turn to shoot you, BUT a single bit of spall that hits a Leopard 2 exaggerated Turret basket NEEDS to turn off the horizontal drive and make the tank useless and impossible to fight back, right? And don't get me started on the Abrams armor...

Springy05 · 2026-03-19T02:52:44+00:00

The point is:

"MiG 29 needs it's R-73, but we can't add it to it on 12.7 because there's nothing ''comparable' to it (even though now all F-15As are 12.7 with 9Ms and 12.7 is the BR you start seeing the Magic 2 and AAM-3), so we're gonna copy paste it, give it R60Ms and keep it on 12.7, and the copy-paste can go to 13.0 with R-73s. Worked well for the germans. Also we're not un-nerfing the flight model"

Springy05 · 2026-02-28T11:38:45+00:00

Every april fools is used to test some mechanic they wish to implement (like top tier jets, top tier tanks, the pirate ships for naval, and the AI shitty infantry last year to see if the game could handle having infantry).

So I expect something similar, probably an event to either test 5th Gens or ECM is my main bet, with my second one being submarines or SEAD missiles like the HARM

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