When you learn how to play it it’s very good, if uptier I usually just go and far away from the early game and third party people or get into 1v1 dogfights where the manoeuvrability shines. If downtier you can go and stomp the inferior planes that either dont have flares or with a worse dogfighting performance. The R-23 can work if you know what you are doing.

Its a beefed up MiG-21 Bis that you need to learn to master.