Mig-21

Originally posted by Knomesfella: Can someone explain to me how a Mig-21 is balanced going up against sabers, vampires, and the like with supersonic capabilities as well as missiles while the opponent has no means to counter them besides going head-on and getting lucky? Who at Gijan thought that was a good idea??

In a slightly reworded format, you are asking why X BR vehicle does not perform "equivalently" (we will say) to X+1 BR vehicle. The answer is in the question- because it's not one BR higher.

Allow me to turn it around: an F-86F has a great many performance advantages over something like a MiG-9. For exactly the same reason, the MiG-9 is not expected to be on even footing with the Sabre.
------------

Addressing the MiG-21F-13: Yes, it definitely does some things better than planes an entire BR lower, it's not without it's shortcomings as others have pointed out.

Yes, it has missiles- but, they're not what anyone could categorically describe as "good". In my experience both firing them and having them shot at me, a simple turn and briefly cutting power will defeat them.

It has one gun, and 60 rounds @ 1000 rounds/min is only about four seconds of trigger time, being generous. An F-13 pilot gets ~4 15-round squirts at targets before the being completely empty. Unless the pilot is skilled and has the patience to line shots up with minimal trigger time, that ammo is gone very, very quickly.

For what it's worth: I cannot remember ever having seen an F-13 carry, even if it was the top BR for the match. I've seen people do amazing things in Super Sabres, Demons (perhaps my favorite 9.3), MiG-19S, and J32's.

There is one more 9.3 plane I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned here, but I'm curious to see if anyone else will bring it up.