F-104S TAF (Italy)
| This page is about the premium jet fighter F-104S TAF (Italy). For other versions, see F-104 (Family). |
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Contents
Description
The ▄F-104S Starfighter TAF is a premium gift rank VII Italian jet fighter with a battle rating of 10.7 (AB), 11.0 (RB), and 10.3 (SB). It was introduced in Update "Apex Predators".
The exported version of Italian's licensed F-104S to Turkey; although F-104 series are deemed obsolete at this tier, especially in terms of its doctrine of trading maneuverability for its high climb rate and speed, if used with caution to more advanced jets, it can still ensures the combat capability with high number of A2A weaponry against unaware targets by going above and wait for the chance.
General info
Flight performance
The vehicle itself is totally identical to its tech-tree counterpart but with Turkish markings. One of the most distinctive feature of F-104 series is the pencil-like airframe with extremely thin and small control surfaces, F-104S is no exception and it also carries an engine with very similar thrust to the J79-GE-17 for Phantom, making it even faster and accelerates faster than previous models. But this increase in thrust didn't change the other feature of F-104 series- its maneuverability, some even refer it as a jet that could only fly straight; due to the design for the highest possible climb rate against Soviet bombers and counter earlier jets of its era (ie MiG-19), it also has one of the thinnest wing of all current jets in game. Although it has a pair of flaps sufficient enough to be extended even at 900 km/h for extra maneuverability, in most cases, if the target is not something as huge as a B-29 Superfortress, chances are players would have to go into energy fights with enemies which could be extra challenging to handle due to its infamous maneuverability. Be sure not being baited into a dogfight or finish the fight as fast as possible as more speed means more odds to survive the battle.
| Characteristics | Max speed (km/h at _,___ m) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | ___ | ___ | 16000 | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | ___ |
| Upgraded | ___ | ___ | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | ||
Details
| Features | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear | Drogue chute |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 0 | 546 | ___ | ___ | ___ | ~__ | ~__ |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < ___ | < ___ | < ___ | N/A |
Engine performance
| Engine | Aircraft mass | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine name | Number | Basic mass | Wing loading (full fuel) | |||
| _____ | _ | _,___ kg | ___ kg/m2 | |||
| Engine characteristics | Mass with fuel (no weapons load) | Max Gross Weight | ||||
| Weight (each) | Type | _m fuel | __m fuel | __m fuel | ||
| ___ kg | ___ | _,___ kg | _,___ kg | _,___ kg | _,___ kg | |
| Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB) | Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (___%/WEP) | |||||
| Condition | 100% | ___%/WEP | _m fuel | __m fuel | __m fuel | MGW |
| Stationary | ___ kgf | ___ kgf | _.__ | _.__ | _.__ | _.__ |
| Optimal | ___ kgf (_ km/h) |
___ kgf (_ km/h) |
_.__ | _.__ | _.__ | _.__ |
Survivability and armour
Like its tech tree counterparts, F-104S for TAF also receives none additional protection against oncoming shots; what makes the situation even dire is that it also doesn't equipped with an EFS onboard, in case of an fire, players would have to pray for the fuel burns out before structural failure or the self-sealing tank stopped the fire eventually. In most cases, with the engine damaged by different means and damages onboard, F-104S would have extremely hard time returning for an repair.
Modifications and economy
2 × 110 / 300 / 600 % 2 × 232 / 232 / 232 % | Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Offensive armament
The F-104S TAF (Italy) is armed with:
- A choice between two presets:
- Without offensive armament
- 60 x countermeasures
Suspended armament
Custom loadout options
Note: identical to F-104S in AMI service.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 mm M61A1 cannons (750 rpg) | 1 | ||||||||||
| 250 lb LDGP Mk 81 bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 500 lb LDGP Mk 82 bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 750 lb M117 cone 45 bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1,000 lb LDGP Mk 83 bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 2,000 lb LDGP Mk 84 bombs | 1 | ||||||||||
| BLU-1 incendiary bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 | |||||||
| Zuni Mk32 Mod 0 ATAP rockets | 4 | 4 | |||||||||
| AIM-7E Sparrow missiles | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| AIM-9J Sidewinder missiles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Maximum permissible loadout weight: 3,400 kg Maximum permissible weight imbalance: 500 kg | |||||||||||
| * AIM-7E Sparrow missiles cannot be equipped in conjunction with the 20 mm M61A1 cannon. | |||||||||||
Usage in battles
Being one of member the Starfighter family, F-104S excels excellently at its main feature- speed and climb rate. As one of the earliest jets to hit Mach 2.0 at high-altitude, the design doctrine called for the maximum climb rate and speed possible, this resulted to the pencil-like airframe. Players will soon find it very different from other jets of its tier; while those jets would still have the chance to be engaged into a dogfight to a certain extend, this would not be the case for F-104S. The jet itself does have varieties of air-to-air weaponries, such as later series of rear-aspect Sidewinders and even Sparrow at its disposal, the jet itself does also come with a M61 on the port side of the airframe. At first glance this might sound pleasing as there are 6 missiles in total for the jet, but when players decided to install AIM-7E for F-104S, they will find that the only fixed cannon onboard would be traded with the port side missile as Sparrow is too long for the airframe; the other thing that hindered F-104S is the radar itself. It does have 30 km search range but the scan rate is slow compare to jets at its tier; the overall performance of this radar also hindered the Sparrow as it couldn't handle targets below it- a major drawback for an interceptor. For most air-to-air combats, bring 6 AIM-9s are more than enough to handle the heated battlefield when delivering strikes upon unaware enemies; if players want to take a bet on head-on fights against target above F-104S, the pair of Sparrows can make sure they could make short work on enemies given the missiles do track on the target, make sure every missile counts as these are the only weapons onboard. F-104S should be used for high-altitude interception or going fast at lower altitudes, being fast does help its survivability; going fast and fly straight to another side of the map can make it a supporting fighter for the team if not being intercepted by enemies, then fly back to the battlefield and pick up targets who used up their energy or without any flares to make the maximum efficiency. Only go dogfights in dire or one-on-one battle; use the flaps accordingly does compensate its poor maneuverability at speeds below 900 km/h.
While Starfighters are infamous at ground-attacking due to its maneuverability at low-altitude as shown by their German counterparts, it does carries up to 1.36 ton of LDGP bombs or napalm. Players will have to be extremely caution on their position, diving onto targets or being too fast in this case is not a good idea for F-104S, the ballistic computer will make sure the bombs land on designated targets precisely.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Rather high acceleration and climb rate than previous models
- Varieties of Air-to-Air/Ground weaponry with sufficient overall payload
- Sufficient counter-measures for oncoming missiles
- Relative high ammo pool for its M61 cannon
- High roll-rate at high speed
Cons:
- Installation of AIM-7 missiles trades the internal M61 cannon
- Huge turning radius
- Way high stall speed than conventional jets
- Somewhat inferior radar at its tier with a slow scan rate
History
During the heat of Cold War where the Cuban Missile Crisis almost brought an end to the world, Turkey, one of the US missile bases overseas would become the frontline and in dire for new jets. Later in May 1963, TAF received their first 54 F-104G series from the Military Aid Program (MAP; 48 104Gs and 6 TF-104Gs); this also included hundreds of other F-104G series from other NATO countries where they would be eventually replaced by their selected new jets by the 1980s. Aside from Lockheed and Canadair F-104s, Turkey also became the only export customer of F-104S series at a total of 40 of them delivered in late 1974 to May 1975.
Their only combat operation was the Invasion of Cyprus where they could have encounter Starfighters from their neighbor across the Aegean Sea: Greece, but both air forces didn't meet each other and the F-104 series were kept in service until TAI's license-assembled F-16Cs arrived and eventually replaced them by mid-1990s.[1][2]
This jet, numbered MM6900/75-6900 of the Project Bora-II delivery was then stored as part of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and later scrapped in June 1995.[3]
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the aircraft;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Italy jet aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Aerfer | Sagittario 2 · Ariete |
| Fiat | G.91 pre-serie · G.91 R/1 · G.91 R/4 (Portugal) · G.91 Y · G.91 YS |
| AMX International | AMX |
| Panavia | Tornado ADV · ▄Tornado IDS (1995) |
| Foreign: | |
| Vampire | Vampire FB 52A |
| F-84 | ▄F-84F · ▄F-84G-21-RE |
| F-86 | CL-13 Mk.4 · ▄F-86K |
| F-104 | ▄F-104G · F-104S · ▄F-104S TAF (Turkey) · F-104S.ASA |
| F-16 | ▄F-16A ADF |
| AV-8 | ▄AV-8B Plus |
| Hungary | |
| Mikoyan-Gurevich | ◔MiG-15bis · ◔MiG-17PF · ◔MiG-21MF · ◔MiG-21bis-SAU · ◔MiG-23MF · ◔MiG-29 |
| Ilyushin | ◔IL-28 |
| Sukhoi | ◔Su-22M3 |
| Saab | ◔JAS39EBS HU C |
| Italy premium aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | CR.32 bis · Marcolin's C.R.42 CN · He 112 B-1/U2 · Re.2001 gruppo 22 |
| C. 202D · IAR-81C · ▄Spitfire Mk Vb/trop · ◐Bf 109 F-4 · ◐Bf 109 G-2 · G.55S | |
| Jet fighters | Ariete · G.91 R/4 · ▄F-104S TAF |
| Strike aircraft | ◐Bf 110 G-4 · Hs 129 B-2 (Romania) · Ro.57 Quadriarma |
