Broken Arrow Aircraft Guide: Fighters, Strike Jets and SEAD

How aircraft work in Broken Arrow

Fixed-wing aircraft don't sit on the map like ground units. You call a plane in, it enters from your map edge, flies its attack run, and exits (or dies trying). That makes every call a bet: you commit points the moment the jet crosses the border, and the enemy's air defense decides whether the bet pays off.

Because of this, aviation is a tempo weapon, not a garrison. The questions that matter are when to call (is enemy AA suppressed or distracted?), what to call (the right ordnance for the target), and where the exit path goes — many jets die on the way out, not the way in.

The four roles of fixed-wing air

Air superiority fighters (F-15EX Eagle II, Su-57) hunt enemy aircraft and helicopters. They're your answer when the enemy leans on air — and the data says this role dominates: fighters top the aircraft efficiency chart.

Strike and multirole jets carry bombs, rockets or guided missiles against ground targets. They delete high-value ground units — artillery, SAMs, clumped armor — but they're the planes most exposed to air defense.

SEAD and electronic warfare (EA-6B Prowler, Su-24MP) suppress or destroy radar-guided air defense. If the enemy has built a SAM umbrella, SEAD is the can-opener that lets the rest of your air force work.

Stealth aircraft (F-117 Nighthawk, F-35, Su-57) trade payload or cost for survivability against radar AA. They're your pick for surgical strikes into defended airspace — but stealth is a discount on risk, not immunity.

The best jets by real-match data

From our live tier list (efficiency = value destroyed per point spent, across all ranked matches): the F-15EX Eagle II is the standout S-tier aircraft at 1.80 KPD for 185 points — the best air-superiority investment in the game right now. The Su-57 is Russia's top jet (A-tier, 0.84 KPD at 255 points), combining stealth and air-to-air punch.

In B-tier: the F-16CJ (200 pts) as a flexible multirole, the F-117 Nighthawk (100 pts) as a cheap stealth striker, and the EA-6B Prowler (110 pts), whose value is mostly invisible to raw stats — suppressed SAMs don't show up as kills, but they let everything else live.

Treat these numbers as a live snapshot, not gospel: patches rebalance aircraft regularly, and our tier list page updates continuously from fresh matches.

Air defense: the other half of the equation

Every plane call happens inside the enemy's air-defense math. Layered AA — long-range SAMs plus short-range guns and IR launchers — makes direct strikes suicidal. Your sequencing should be: scout the AA, suppress or bait it (SEAD, artillery on SAMs, a cheap decoy run), then commit the expensive jets.

Watch missile types: radar SAMs are countered by SEAD and stealth, while IR launchers ignore both and punish low-flying strikes. If your jets keep dying, the answer is almost never 'stop using air' — it's 'open the airspace first'.

How much air belongs in a deck?

For most decks, 2–4 aircraft cards are enough: one fighter to contest the sky, one striker for high-value ground targets, and SEAD if you expect SAM-heavy opponents. Going heavier than about a quarter of your budget on air makes you fragile against a player who simply builds more AA than you can suppress.

Pair air with recon: a strike called on a spotted, identified target is a trade — a strike called blind is a donation. And always leave points for a second call; a deck that spends its whole air budget in one wave has no answer to the counterattack.