Mig-23MLD In War Thunder : A Basic Review 

Honestly. If you get one of the high tier money prems you could realistically grind out the tree in about a month if you no life. 2-3 months if you don't.

Even a premium account on a good jet might do it. With premium I've almost unlocked the F-4C with the F-100 a whole lot faster, time wise, than getting the F-100 with various planes and I've had a lot more fun doing it and I've made a decent amount of SL

@@mittcrocket5942 Problem happens when you only have like 2-3 hours on 2-3 weekdays due to work/school/other real life responsibilities etc. Even with premium sh!te, it takes a good while and it kinda kills the mood.

@@mittcrocket5942 Thats the problem right there I have up until the 21bis and it takes approximately 20-30 hours of grinding to get 1 top tierish aircraft. Thats a lot of time, about a month in my case (no premium). Ive already payed the snail and instead my 17AS becomes obsolete and useless. For 1 tech tree of 1 type to only shorten instead of skipping the grind it asks for the same as a new AAA title. It shouldnt be like this. Plus by the time I get the plane its obsolete and gets uptiered and stomped on.

@@mittcrocket5942 a month ?lol I got a5c n got to j7e on day 2 or 3 lmao

are confirmed to be added when minor nations get new top tier planes

what is the IRST good for?

@@its__russian284 You can lock enemy planes and their rwr can't pick up IRST :)

@@cheemsburmgerm7631 yes but radar missiles cant get a lock with IRST

Yea no, according to all russian players the f5 is broken and the USA f4 is op cause flares. This community is a fucking joke. American players are the only real ones.

Hint: major fucking sarcasm and disgust towards some players lol, not you 😎👍🍻

@@reitairue2073 hahahahahaha no

from my experience, it actually does win 1-circles with the F-5, at least the F-5E that I fly, assuming the fight gets slow enough for the MLD to use its wing sweep optimally. the F-5 really doesn't pull much AOA, so against many planes in balanced 1v1s the F-5 doesn't get nose-on first in a 1-circle. of course, the F-5 also can't win a rate fight against the MLD, and can't outaccelerate the MLD, and it certainly can't outrun the MLD, and it has fewer and arguably worse missiles than the MLD... hmm. maybe the MLD isn't the most balanced plane.

The problem I think is that it takes time for the wing to fisically change it's sweep, and maybe for starting a turn at high speed 0% sweep isn't ideal. Just like prop control I think this is one thing the computer will do a beter job 99% of the time

@@juanordonezgalban2278 the computer never sets it to minimum sweep (at least on the M, I assume it’s the same for the MLD). For best rate fighting performance you need to use manual. Any time you are going to pull max cl (basically any dogfighting scenario), minimum sweep is preferable. The computer sets the wing for maximum acceleration in level flight, not for best turn rate/radius performance.

Aim-7f are just handicaps I hunt f-14 because 9/10 they can’t actually fight and just fire off missles hurr durr

Late MLD can carry R73, but yeah it's gonna be way too OP

I guess maybe Gaijin can implement the R-73 and R-27 for the MLD as a later upgrade when the game finally adds 4th Gen Fighters in order for the MLD to have a good fighting chance when combating them, but only when it has to fight 4th Gen fighters in a up-tier match. These missiles will be too OP against jets of the same BR and lower.

If they add now that it would be very op

If/When they add the R-27 into the game, it will be interesting to see if they "back port" it onto the MLD the way they gave walleyes to the F-4

@@TimsVariety I am not sure that MiG-23MLD what able carry R-27. Only MiG-23-98 should if I have correct information.

It's easy to see how tbh. A straight or almost straight wing is much better at subsonic speeds in regards to lift and drag characteristics than a swept or delta-type wing. Add to that the Mig-23MLD being lightened plus featuring lift-increasing vortex generators.

There was a case where Egyptian Mig-23 somehow outmaneuvered Israeli Mirages

@@flogger8413 Mirages are planes of one circle fight, that plane with that engine just have to avoid the one circle and then in the Mirage is dead because it would enter in a two circle and if it survived into a rate fate that yes or yes I lethal

Idk how R-24 is best when clearly the skyflash is.. it has like double the range ... but idk about other stuff like speed and acceleration

The lock on after launch sometimes works which is odd because its not in the game

I read a report from a test pilot who mentioned it was "comparable" on the horizontal to the early model F-16s and "superior, barely" on the vertical. Pretty impressive IMHO.

It was the ML, not the MLD. It should be even better.

Main reason why I think an early F-16A wouldn't be out of place in WT. Maybe it would be even worse than the MLD, as it didn't have BVR missiles (only some planes modified for the National Guard had AIM-7s, maybe it could be a researchable mod in game)

@@jfv2312 it did have bar

@@jfv2312 all of them could carry the aim7e2

Javelin is on the list.

It's the correct configuration of the missile. Someone bug reported it that the R24R only has a 0.5 second delay in tracking. This was proven by a real life manual of the R-24 missiles.

@@warthundershowcasing8905In the r23 that correction of the flight is still missing since it is the software that inherited the r27 They fly for a while around 1km, in addition to the fact that both the r24 and r24t have the same range all aspects of 4.7km Besides that the Gload factor of the r24 is 7g not 5g

@@DarkLighting115 there is no R-24... it doesn't exist from what i know... there's R-24R ( radar/SARH ) and R-24T ( IR/ST ) ... the difference is in the seeker... that's the only difference

Flares and chaff. Flares for IR seekers, Chaff for radar seekers.

Then it will get aim 9 L s at which point it won't do anything cause mig-29 will be in the game

Honestly the 262 is garbage. Even some props like the F8F, F7F and late model P-51 can out do it.

su7bmk strong

US currently is lacking. F4E which is their top dog fighter was added when the Mig 21SMT came out so well over a year ago.. Still waiting on their first pulse doppler platform which will be obsolete when it finally gets added.... I think what is happening is the USSR is getting the full treatment while they can before the US stuff starts really pumping out as during the cold war they almost always had the edge over most everyone else.

@@Fast85FoxGT i think you may be correct, and why im gonna start grinding the shit out of america, so when the time comes and shit is added, i wont be far behind

I'm stuck in rank 6 USSR because although I managed to get the MiG-21s before rank 7 was introduced, I also ended up getting stuck as I only had 2/5 vehicles in rank 6. So the last several months, I've had to go through and grind all the way through rank 5, and I'm still working on that :/ I think both nations will always have something good to offer at high tier. The F-4E is still good, and the MiG-21SMT is a powerful plane at 10.3 (and obviously the MiG-23MLD right now). So whatever you end up going with, you'll probably have fun either way

@@Fast85FoxGT What edge exactly? MiG-23 was the first aircraft with an actually usable LDSD radar. MiG-31 was the first and only PESA equipped combat aircraft for about two decades. There's also R-27, R-33, R-40 and R-73 worth mentioning. Both sides were better at different things. Whereas the US lagged behind on missile and radar technology during the 70s-90s they were ahead in other aspects such as electronic warfare, engine design and far more ergonomic systems. If you look at the doctrine of both sides it's also fairly obvious why either side was better at something specific compared to the other. If both nations were equally implemented the game wouldn't be fun for either side. MiG-23s would most likely end up being chow for F-14s while said respective F-14s and F-4s would be chow for MiG-25s. I do however hope the US gets something new soon. They should've added the F-111 along with the F-105 a long time ago.

o7

We will probably have to wait a year again

My general advice if someone is interested in a premium is to test fly the options at least a dozen times and figure out which one you feel most comfortable with. They all have dramatically different playstyles, and the general idea of taking a premium is purely to grind out other planes, so test fly a bit and see if you can figure out which one will fit your personal grinding style.

@@TimsVariety the thing is, I'm better with migs and suhkois, but the 38 gets r60s,but it is still a bad platform

@@eaststarling7805 dont get yak-38 , its my most played plane and it is shit . The only thing it has are r60s which are no longer relevant . Get the mig17 if you want to dogfight , the bmk if you want to bomb bases . Bmk is a good grinder because bombing bases is both easier and more rewarding than dogfighting , but you might lose more often because you are somewhat of a dead weight to you team and dogfighting is a bit frickier , but still doable . You can bomb bases and then start dogfighting

@@SirErfan thank you

@@SirErfan R-60's are relevant at 9.3 especially in downtier wdym? Also YOU DON"T DOGFIGHT WITH YAK-38... what are you DOING? You only dogfight and use VTOL in a clear 1v1 situation or 2v1 ( with a teammate /near one ) Yak-38/M is really fun if you know how to play which isn't really hard... it's just... DON'T TURN HARD... it's kinda that simple really

Something to work towards :-)

Uhhhh, or they want to reduce power creep? While it's true that planes such as the F15 are incredibly deadly, it's not as if the Soviets don't have an equivalent. R27s are pretty damn powerful, and the mig29 is pretty good plane. The bigger issue is the massive power creep you get with aviation, since there was so much advancement. Oh and besides, the tornado, one of the main nato fighters is really hard to get licencing for. Just be patient

1 thing to note is that it would probably be impossible for the game to go 4.5 gen or beyond, so even at peak air addition would still be gen 4 or gen 4 turned early gen 4.5 (aka when soviet and US are still on par)

@@cubicsquare6926 "Uhhhh, or they want to reduce power creep?" That's why they added the Harrier out of fucking nowhere, right genius?

They are most definitely artificially neutering the US for the time being. Since the US has had 0 mainstay fighters since the F4E (added when 21SMT got introduced) and has 0 all aspect sidewinder nor have they even gotten a pulse doppler F4 (which will be probably a F4B or J which will be essentially obsolete by the time its added.)

@@Fast85FoxGT while I do hope for moar American stuff, there are a couple issues with what ya said. The first all aspect sidewinder, aim9 l is massively good and would break the balance. Also, I think f4b didn't get PD. Hopefully we will get an f4j tho with 9h missiles

Check my video on radar systems - theres a keybind for it.

The mig23 cannot out turn the draken what you on about hahahahaha. The one thing the mig23 can do is keep energy over the draken but you will no out turn that thing

@@voidgaming3700 trust me, I've done it several times. Aggressive use of the wings, combined with manoeuvres to bleed the Draken of its energy

@@mockingbird0901 you been facing some stupid draken pilots because my favorite preys in the draken are people that think they can win a dogfight, f5s, mirages, mig21/23/27 and su17s

@@voidgaming3700 I've been doing it against a very competent friend of mine. We were both shocked to find it to be the case. If the mig has the wings on auto I'll agree that it has no chance at all, but on manual, when done right, it wins

@@mockingbird0901 again it will not win against someone that knows what they’re doing. The draken should be able to kill you in the first 2/3 turns if the player is too stupid to waste all their energy in 1 turn they aren’t good. Ive gotten tired of mig23 players trying to dogfight me in a draken for them to get killed at every speed. The draken is quite literally the ultimate dogfighter. And the lower you speed the more dangerous it becomes. The draken it like a zero keep it at high speed and even an f4E will out turn it.

If only I had that much influence ..... (re: the F-5 stuff) A video on countermeasures, in the same spirit as my radar/missile videos, will come eventually. Big list of vids to crank out, plus dayjob.

@@TimsVariety well I respect your ability to reply, regarding you being busy. And I know you don't have the influence, however you got more than some feedback forum that gaijin only sees things they want to see. But if it's something that you don't have time to request, or don't find important enough that's understandable. At the end of the day, I'm just expressing very specific frustrations with a game which is, at the end of the day, one of the best I can currently access and play. Again, thank you for replying, and acknowledging what I said.

@@aviatorlewski9310 FWIW, a few people HAVE complained about the lack of radar in F-5 variants that got it in real life. No idea if it'll go anywhere.

@@TimsVariety I mean I feel of you have the F-5C the current F5E radar set, slap it into 10.7 or 11.0, and then give the F-5E a radar with lookdown and IFF, then I think that would please the fans. That would have caveats though. On one hand the new players get a very basic, primitive "modern" jet, and basically get a basic introduction to RADAR, and it's good for them to learn, however on the other hand the teamkilling would be more prominent, and the die hard fans would be pissed. But I mean it only gets 2x 9e sidewinders so I don't know.

Maybe the fighter variant of the F-111 Ardvark

@@eaststarling7805 No. Not an F-111, it was meant as a strike plane, not a fighter. We need atleast a F-16, but by the time we get it, theyll have the Mig 25, and we will then need an F15 to counter that one. They always do this..... USSR has the best stuff and the rest of the world is told to "cope"

@@rogeryoung9934 MiG-25 would kinda be useless or something... it's not that great really... it has 2x of MiG-23/27 engines tho xD... the Foxbat is essentially... Engines ... radar ... missiles and nuts and bolts holding everything together MiG-29 is more dangerous to be added So my theory is that F-16 is gonna be in the next update... and the whole update will be called The Fighting Falcon update... ( parody of Starfighters update ) meaning that F-16 will be in EVERY NATION against Russia... and that would perfectly balance out everything ... everyone gets a really nice top tier jet... including Italy... and when gaijin does that... later in 2022 they can install F-14 tomcat and MiG-29 Fulcrum and voila... the new Era has begun And MLD would be adapted to new jet era... by giving it it's R-60M's back AND ... AND... wait for it... it's R-73's ... which have same range as a Sparrow or close to it... is an IR missile.. and pulls more G's then R-60... like 40-50G's and that would make MiG-23MLD balanced against new jets and will be like 0.7 to 1.0 BR higher then MiG-23M And really F-14A can easily be like 11.3 BR and F-16 can be that too... it's not that overpowered really unless they both get Aim-9L in which case ideally would be 11.7

@@rogeryoung9934 he's talking about the f111B with 6 AIM-54s

Yeah we don't need a f16 or a f14 just a newer phantom for america

Yeah it doesn’t need them

The mig23M the first generation was an interceptor, the ML was a fighter with pretty good característic but used by pilots with bad training

@@ser43_OLDC MLD was an advanced variant and only sold to countries in the Warsaw Pact.

Often the MiG-23 bad reputation comes from the lackluster performance of Syrian pilots flying the monkey-model MS against Israel.

@@rollercoasterintogiantdomo The MLD wasnt sold to the warsaw pact, they were a modernization to the already existing MLA, That´s why it wasn't sold to the Warsaw pact, and I think that the only ones that used MLD were the russians the Warsaw had ML and MLA.

The M is great, but the MLD really is an enormous upgrade.

Which plane are you stuck on?

@@Scorchluck ehh eh it’s kinda the whole tech tree I’ve got to rank 4 and just can’t progress any further

@@owosatan8864 su-7 bmk is a good premium pack for grinding if you dont mind jet bombers

@@addyboi8493 in my opinion Yak-38 is better grinder... because R-60 on 9.3 on a really fast jet that isn't that great at turning but it can outrun a lot of things... it's an Attacker... so airspawn with R-60 and going almost Mach 1... it's kinda 2 guarenteed kills and what ever you do with the gunpod... from my Yak-38M experience ( non premium variant) i earn a LOT of SL and really good RP... now imagine pretty much double that with Yak-38 In my opinion Yak-38 is more fun... and fun = less pain endured while grinding... which you most certainly will feel when using Su-7BMK... it's a bomber with no missiles... it's kinda bad at fighting... so the gameplay is usually spawn... drop bombs and try to do something else and then die... or do nothing and die ( except bombing bases ofc )

Get the Su-7B and talisman it. Don't put your money up on overpriced garbage. You'll regularly get at least 10k RP per match even with mediocre performance. You are up against subsonic stuff, you get to drop your bombs every single time, you can hit ground, be an interceptor, land to bomb again etc. A good, long game will bring you shy of 40k RP per match, and being against subsonics in many matches mean you get to choose when the match ends even if you are not good at fighting.

People say this literally any time the Soviets get anything remotely good. Give it a rest.

@@alphaprawns the problem is the soviet always get something good every update, this has been said by someone that has top tier for most nations and was a Russian main. The problem is that people complain due to the fact that Russia gets a top tier fighter almost every update the US has only gotten something mildly good that is now obsolete F5E, and the f8 is not that good, with the f4E only being good at high altitude now because everyone’s better at low altitude. Russia gets an extremely good aircraft jet again, france and Italy gets ignored and thought im happy Germany got a bis mig21 that plane is a gimmick in this current meta.

@@alphaprawns except when the other major nation *ahem* US *cough* hasn't seen a replacement for the F4E in over a year(was added when the MiG21SMT was introduced..). The F5 is a decent dog fighter but hardly anything more than a support fighter unfortunately. Now the USSR has 3 main top tier fighters. And their top tier ground lineup decimates everything considering when you have KA50s, 52s and now Mi28s in the sky with 2s6's on the ground. The meta right now is most definitely USSR for the time being .

@@alphaprawns Maybe there's some truth to what's being said...

cope

It's not about copy pasting at this point (as seen with various tech trees) the point behind it I think since Germany gets two air forces worth of cold war planes is to not have them absolutely stomping in air like they used to in ground, now with mld in you should start to see some of the GDR mig-23s trickle through. Most likely the BM since it fills the cas hole Germany has at that tier.

@@TheIrishBread BM or maybe BN? That's essentially an early MiG-27 xD idk about what it can carry/use for CAS... probably not the same as 27M xd like Tv stuff?

Or it could just be luck

Thats only on the dev servers

@@voidgaming3700 yeah If they added it back on live servers they would make a big announcement And also i think those lead indicators are in Air Arcade only? Maybe on dev server people are seeing on dev stream ... primarily russian one the air arcade mode? And on dev server they play arcDe so maybe that's why they think that?

Have you missed the entire video? It really doesn’t need the r60m it’s already better than everything in game

@@GrundleLongDongyou can say that but alot of Russian mains are bitching and whining about it no having r60 and basically making every other plane complete garbage compared to it

@@voidgaming3700 yeah I play all major nations including Russia, i personally enjoy the game most when everything is as fair as possible, it really doesn’t need r60m, I’ve even experienced someone trying to say it needs the r73… idk anymore

@@GrundleLongDong which i think is dumb the counter to this plane would be an early f14 and im not saying it because “oh give me f14 is because in real life test they were pretty close together when It came to a fight. The mig23 was even able to defeat the mig29

@@voidgaming3700 I agree however on certain conditions, the f14 should have no Phoenix, it should have aim 9G & aim 9H along with aim7e4 (in game the equivalent of the e2), so it would basically be the f4 with improved performance. However it’s important that first we get the f4S which actually would have worse performance than the f4E so it won’t have too much of an impact on balance

After the Russians get the Death Star mate... Dont worry, Gaijin will give US plenty of Vietnam ear planes, while the rest of the world gets Gen 4 and Gen 5. They arent getting a cent from me until USA and other nations get competitive aircraft.

A few of mine are "detailed" reviews, about twice as long.

@@TimsVariety so when will you do next detailed?

It's not , it still got the all aspect R-24 ,

It doesn’t need R60Ms

@@patrioticpanda7618 yes it does the mig23m is only just decent with r60ms.

@@DustyBustty okay? But the MLD is good even without R60Ms

@@patrioticpanda7618 its ok phantom is still better

Kinda fun how russia gets plane which is younger than F15A/14A and USA is still stuck at plane that fought MiG21F13-PFM and MF in vietnam yet its at much higher BR than these 3 and nation which used PD radars first, still lacks it..... MLD is literally 20 years younger than F4E, FGR2,FG1,Mirage III, F104's..... This is fucking hillarious. What will be next, first iteration of F15A vs Su-27S? Because MiG-29 wont be enough? Thats like putting P51D vs MiG-19/21F13.

Comes sale I have to spade around 5 to tiers

US is artificially neutered by Gaijin for the time being. They know the US had higher performing equipment throughout the cold war, but if the US got all the stuff they had when the MLD came out it wouldnt be fun for anyone else.

Loool

theyre starving you so youll pay up when the 4th gens come

o7

I was cheering for you mate, you did your best against the Mig spam

Because the R-60M is significantly worse than the AIM-9L, and the next upgrade over the R-60M, the R-73A, is WAY better than the AIM-9L. If Gaijin wants to add more modern stuff, they should start immediately with the Mid-4th generation jets with R-73s and AIM-9Ms

MiG-23MLD i do belive has MiG-29 radar... and it's capable of carrying R-73 missile... and depending on the variant of it... it's gonna have 50km range ( like sparrow ) and pull almost double that of R-60... so 40-50G's This missile will make MLD go up in BR by 0.7 or 1.0 BR leaving 23M at it's current BR basically making the 23M the 21SMT and MLD the 21Bis xD So the radar on MLD is Gen 4 for sure... MLD = EJ Kai because EJ Kai has F-16 radar and MLD has MiG-29 radar

Next update will be mig 29 and US will still have to fly F4E :)

America has never suffered any update these last few years

@@thelin9061 American Top tier has been suffering since the patch after the introduction of the F5E in terms of aviation. The ground tech trees basically has been neutered since DU used in M1A2 isnt modeled correctly, and the shells are underperforming at best especially considering the rise of Kinetic ERA against the 10 Russian MBTs in game. 😐 Other countries are suffering as well, but in both aviation and ground, Russians have been getting the most ammount of additions, with them never suffering.

@@pelican933 jjaja America was bullying in air RB top tier for over a year, so stay calm that others want to enjoy

@@pelican933 ALL THE APFSDS OF THIS GAME ARE UNDERPERFORMING, SO SHUT UP

Yee

Wdym pretty shit all aspect capability? Do you realize you can lock onto stuff the regular R-60 straight up can NOT do?

@@kajmak64bit76 yeah... and? my point is its hardly better than the r60 at all and is just as situational

@@duckzt all aspect is a huuuuuge difference dude There is no difference between R-60 and R-60M... they are the exact same missile but the M has better seeker that's All aspect It's not situational... you lock on... FRONTALLY... people don't usually expect that and die to it... and else it's not JUST front... it's also on other sides... let's say you're turning with the enemy... and you get an angle on it... R-60M would lock on and you fire and boom kill But R-60 would not have lock and you either die or just waste a bit of time for the kill All aspect R-60M turned MiG-23M from garbage to straight up overpowered just because All aspect

@@kajmak64bit76flares??? radar missiles? guns??? if you arent playing against bots an all aspect missile with 2km range isnt exactly gonna be a game changer

@@duckzt you would be suprised how many people don't use flares and radar missiles I personally don't use radar... like at all... i don't care about the quality of it... as a Russian Main ofc... i will only start using radar when like R-27 and R-77 comes to the game... and even then i belive they have IR seeker variant like R-23/24 ... SO I would just use IRST because fck RWR R-60M and other IR missiles are the meta right now... radar missiles are just too cumbersome to use and not reliable... but the IR missile up close is sure to hit and get a kill if not just miss because flare... but hey... you will atleast know it missed and you would be able to react faster and launch a new missile... and/or use guns... It's much more fun to use this tactic rather then long range missile sniping ... with BVR missiles you're essentially camping with a plane xD So i would take R-60M over R-60 and every other missile in the game

bruh how

@@quantumedits272 how many fucking 11.0s do they have?

@@quantumedits272 this plane is quite literally better than everything else at top tier

@@voidgaming3700 so your telling me ej kai cant counter it

@@quantumedits272 no the ej kai is a gimmick is an f4 with an advanced radar on it. The only thing it has above the mig23 is amount of long range missiles thats it.

No... MLD is the right choice here... kinda like MF/SMT upgrade to straight up best version of MiG-21 the Bis variant 23MLD is the Bis and 23M is the SMT In the future MLD will receive R-73 missile and will go up in BR while 23M will more or less stay at the current BR like most likely 1 full BR or 0.7 BR behind MLD Also 23mm GSh-L isn't that bad wdym.. especially now when gaijin changed the belts and now it has HE shells instead of Fragmentation Incendiary shells Also from my experience oddly enough the Default belt works best... it's 50/50 loaded of HE and AP... so you shoot both at the same time meaning better damage... since if AP overpens and do no damage... the HE will do a lot of damage and when HE doesn"t do damage the AP will do damage... it makes sense to... now imagine having an air targets belt wherr you got a lot more HE... imagine shooting where you do less damage with HE but you could have done a lot more with AP... That's my theory to why Default belt is better xd

@@kajmak64bit76 muzzle velocity suck , MLD is a tad too strong , it can outrun and outturn almost everything and the R-24T is a really strong missile wich is not good for balance

@@kajmak64bit76 and so what is the équivalent of the Mig-21F13 ? I personnaly like to have 3 variants of à plane , 1 early , 1 mid and last variant of an aircraft unless another aircraft can fil the gap

@@aureliencostabeber8532 an equivalent of 21-F13? That would be a MiG-29 with R-3S only xD

@@kajmak64bit76 you mean Mig-23 with r3s ? It's the Mig-23S and i would love to have it in game or an attack version like the Mig-23B

Taking their sweet fucking time adding a new america jet that can be on par with this.

@@a6m576 right, it's a joke at top tier right now. Usa jets are so outclassed and people on the other side STILL say america is op, cause we have flares 😂🤣🍻👍