The new F-160 Raiju is really enjoyable!

[harryernandez1]

I know there are a lot of differing opinions on the newest UPDATE from R*.

But after spending a bit of time flying around the F-160 Raiju, first in the (3rd Mercenary) mission and now as I could afford to finally buy one myself here's my take.

GOOD STUFF
1. Yes, the F-160 Raiju is indeed a very nice rep of F-35B STOVL.
2. Yes, it has armament ready to go in the base version includes homing, non homing and explosive shell gun.
3. Yes, the price tag is steep, all things considered, but the entertainment/enjoyable flight of this thing makes up for a bit of the cost.
4. Yes, the speed of this thing is well above the Oppressor or Buzzard making it an actual grinding/mission prep vehicle that really reduces time across map.
5. Yes,it is so easy to fly and can be called as 'personal vehicle' into the game session usually landing nearby so it's very useful.
6. Yes, inside the hangar you can equip this with improved engine, livery etc.
7. Yes, this can be placed in a hangar or recalled as a personal vehicle so long as you're not already using another personal vehicle.


BAD STUFF
1. No, homing missiles are not that accurate and on some prep missions i've notices like Duggan supply mission the helicopters evade it's homing missiles very often so i need to use the explosive rounds/Gatling gun.
2. No, even with full 100% armour it is not nearly as tough or hardened as say the Avenger but for aircraft it's pretty reasonable. Flying this thing is fun but it's afterburner can cut out (pretty nice realism actually) and if you ding this up bad enough such as forgetting landing gear etc. it will break down on you mid flight. ;)
3. No, it's a 1 seater not 2 so friends need to get their own ;)
4. No, it can not be called in from every part of the map, you need to be near a road or some utilitarian area that can land the plane in a zone nearby (includes some beaches, roads, other airfields, etc)
5. No, the price of buying 1 avenger updating the avenger and owning a hangar does not match the difference of around ~$1.5m costing so if you don't own avenger you can still buy this cheaper for the full price than trying to pay for those items IF you dont already own them!


CONCLUSION
This jet is a beauty to fly!
It's very fast and playable even for grinding missions or prep!
It is a good purchase considering cost of other vehicles that don't nearly perform as well.
There are limitations and cost to ownership may be too steep if you are still getting started.

Thank you R* for bringing out something modern as Hydra was bit antiquated.
Thank you friends and fellow other grinders who helped me earn enough to buy this and try it out!!

IMHO Two thumbs up for F-160 Raiju

[WhiteKnight]

I been waiting for plane like F-35 to be in the game for a while to replace the hydra. Not sure if i want to buy it though. I still love OP MK2.

[kr3m]

The F-160 Raiju is a YF-23 meets F-35.. the Raiju has rear wings that double as the vertical and horizontal stabilizers like the YF-23 has.. the F-35 has fixed vertical stabilizers separate from the horizontal wings.. The primary wings also follow the shape of the YF-23.. so it's more like the shell of a YF-23 with the engine tech of a F-35.. but I'm digging it.. the new F-160 Raiju kinda makes me wish this game weren't overran by modders cause it would be cool to see some unique dogfights with the maneuverability the Raiju has.. The days of converting to vtol as you approach are over.. this thing's vtol will break your forward momentum like a brick wall.. and once you get the hang of that, well, you can just hit your breaks and watch the enemy fly right by..

Originally posted by WhiteKnight:

I been waiting for plane like F-35 to be in the game for a while to replace the hydra. Not sure if i want to buy it though. I still love OP MK2.

Mk2 isn't really OP any more.. in fact, it's missiles really suck unless you're good with aiming non-homing missiles from a twitchy pitching platform.. and when you figure the price of a Mk2 before customization is that of a Hanger + the Raiju after unlocking trade price, it really makes the mk2 less reasonable/sensible than the jet & hangar.. and that's just based on the new price of the mk2, not even factoring in cost of NC or Terrobyte to mod the Mk2.. Mk2 is a joke now and more so just a faster form of travel in some/most cases.

[Chris Tohsaka]

Even if I want to get it. I can't. Hangar is full.
And I don't want to remove/replace my current aircraft for the newer once.
So... Lazy R* should make a new or upgrade the current hangar so we could store more.
And Psssst, Lazy R* if you put a extra 0 behind it. Those who doesn't have money might get sharkcards!!!!!

Not saying they should. But seeing how hungry they r for money....

[Roland]

Originally posted by harryernandez1:

I know there are a lot of differing opinions on the newest UPDATE from R*.

But after spending a bit of time flying around the F-160 Raiju, first in the (3rd Mercenary) mission and now as I could afford to finally buy one myself here's my take.

GOOD STUFF
5. Yes,it is so easy to fly and can be called as 'personal vehicle' into the game session usually landing nearby so it's very useful.


BAD STUFF

4. No, it can not be called in from every part of the map, you need to be near a road or some utilitarian area that can land the plane in a zone nearby (includes some beaches, roads, other airfields, etc)

CONCLUSION
This jet is a beauty to fly!
It's very fast and playable even for grinding missions or prep!
It is a good purchase considering cost of other vehicles that don't nearly perform as well.
There are limitations and cost to ownership may be too steep if you are still getting started.

Thank you R* for bringing out something modern as Hydra was bit antiquated.
Thank you friends and fellow other grinders who helped me earn enough to buy this and try it out!!

IMHO Two thumbs up for F-160 Raiju

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you are padding your lists pretty heavily. Neither of these points makes sense because the Raiju is exactly like every other plane in terms of where it can be summoned.
If it was somehow different, then that would be noteworthy, but you make it sound like it's treated like a car when it's treated like literally every other plane you own. There's nowhere I can summon it that I can't summon a Rogue or Hydra.

Originally posted by kr3m:

The F-160 Raiju is a F-22 meets F-35.. the Raiju has rear wings that double as the vertical and horizontal stabilizers like the F-22 has.. the F-35 has fixed vertical stabilizers separate from the horizontal wings.. The primary wings also follow the shape of the F-22.. so it's more like the shell of a F-22 with the engine tech of a F-35.. but I'm digging it.. the new F-160 Raiju kinda makes me wish this game weren't overran by modders cause it would be cool to see some unique dogfights with the maneuverability the Raiju has.. The days of converting to vtol as you approach are over.. this thing's vtol will break your forward momentum like a brick wall.. and once you get the hang of that, well, you can just hit your breaks and watch the enemy fly right by..

Originally posted by WhiteKnight:

I been waiting for plane like F-35 to be in the game for a while to replace the hydra. Not sure if i want to buy it though. I still love OP MK2.

Mk2 isn't really OP any more.. in fact, it's missiles really suck unless you're good with aiming non-homing missiles from a twitchy pitching platform.. and when you figure the price of a Mk2 before customization is that of a Hanger + the Raiju after unlocking trade price, it really makes the mk2 less reasonable/sensible than the jet & hangar.. and that's just based on the new price of the mk2, not even factoring in cost of NC or Terrobyte to mod the Mk2.. Mk2 is a joke now and more so just a faster form of travel in some/most cases.

The Mk2 was never OP people just didn't play around with the Thruster enough to find out it will beat a MK2 every single time. I get called a hacker all the time because people are morons and don't know the Thruster mechanics. (and yes I am in fact calling every single person who ever said the MK2 was OP a moron because I've been killing them with the Thruster since they came out)

[kr3m]

had to correct myself.. not F-22.. it's a YF-23 shell with F-35 engine mechanices..

[kr3m]

Originally posted by Chris Tohsaka:

Even if I want to get it. I can't. Hangar is full.
And I don't want to remove/replace my current aircraft for the newer once.

Full before the update, or full after parking the Avenger there?

Cause if your Avenger is in your Facility and your Hangar is full, like me before the update, you would have to part with one of your resprayed Pegasus Vehicles so you can mod your Avenger to play the new content in the first place. Once you've moved your Avenger back to your Facility, there's your free space for the F-160 Raiju.. unless you feel like you really need to have that resprayed Pegasus vehicle back..

You have 20 hangar options, it's best to keep Pegasus aircraft with Pegasus and use these 20 for craft that you can actually modify armor, engine, handling, etc..

[[HZR] Bonzo_69]

UWU
'

[ChickenBalls]

Originally posted by kr3m:

The F-160 Raiju is a YF-23 meets F-35.. the Raiju has rear wings that double as the vertical and horizontal stabilizers like the YF-23 has.. the F-35 has fixed vertical stabilizers separate from the horizontal wings.. The primary wings also follow the shape of the YF-23.. so it's more like the shell of a YF-23 with the engine tech of a F-35.. but I'm digging it.. the new F-160 Raiju kinda makes me wish this game weren't overran by modders cause it would be cool to see some unique dogfights with the maneuverability the Raiju has.. The days of converting to vtol as you approach are over.. this thing's vtol will break your forward momentum like a brick wall.. and once you get the hang of that, well, you can just hit your breaks and watch the enemy fly right by..

nah it looks more like they took the front half of F-35 and mated it with the rear half of Boeing X-32

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-32

[Conway Bieber]

just shoot it with grenade launcher when it gets close
THUMP

[kr3m]

Originally posted by ChickenBalls:

nah it looks more like they took the front half of F-35 and mated it with the rear half of Boeing X-32

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-32

The JSF is ugly and bulky AF.. nothing about that looks like the Raiju..

The Raiju looks like this, but with the single engine and vtol of the F35..
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/YF-23_top_view.jpg/220px-YF-23_top_view.jpg

Originally posted by Joe Rogan:

just shoot it with grenade launcher when it gets close
THUMP

Definitely need explosives until R* corrects this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T0KeSlP6j0

[WhiteKnight]

Originally posted by kr3m:

Originally posted by WhiteKnight:

I been waiting for plane like F-35 to be in the game for a while to replace the hydra. Not sure if i want to buy it though. I still love OP MK2.

Mk2 isn't really OP any more.. in fact, it's missiles really suck unless you're good with aiming non-homing missiles from a twitchy pitching platform.. and when you figure the price of a Mk2 before customization is that of a Hanger + the Raiju after unlocking trade price, it really makes the mk2 less reasonable/sensible than the jet & hangar.. and that's just based on the new price of the mk2, not even factoring in cost of NC or Terrobyte to mod the Mk2.. Mk2 is a joke now and more so just a faster form of travel in some/most cases.

Instead of saying Oppressor Mk2. I simply say OPMk2. >_>

[kr3m]

Originally posted by WhiteKnight:

Instead of saying Oppressor Mk2. I simply say OPMk2. >_>

In game terms, OP = Over Powered.. which the mk2 used to be.. people just call it the mk2 cause we all know we're not talking about hand held weapons..

[ChickenBalls]

Originally posted by kr3m:

Originally posted by ChickenBalls:

nah it looks more like they took the front half of F-35 and mated it with the rear half of Boeing X-32

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-32

The JSF is ugly and bulky AF.. nothing about that looks like the Raiju..

The Raiju looks like this, but with the single engine and vtol of the F35..
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/YF-23_top_view.jpg/220px-YF-23_top_view.jpg

uh the rear part of the X-32 as it got tiny vertical fins and single engine while the YF-23 is huge with 2 engines and much larger vertical fins.
also the JSF program consisted of both X-35 and X-32

[kr3m]

Originally posted by ChickenBalls:

uh the rear part of the X-32 as it got tiny vertical fins and single engine

Sorry, I don't think you'll be able to change my mind.. The Raiju looks more like a hybrid between these two:

https://live.staticflickr.com/7139/7552626024_3738251da2_b.jpg

https://media.defense.gov/2007/May/16/2000546046/2000/2000/0/060810-F-1234S-004.JPG

Than anything remotely resembling this PoS..
https://www.19fortyfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/X-32-1-1024x576.jpg

[harryernandez1]

Appreciate everyone's comments as they are definitely helpful/clarifying! Cheers!