Berkut

The Berkut is an air superiority fighter of the Cartel.

Gameplay[]

Berkuts are fast aircrafts that devastate all kinds of air units with their gatling gun and AAMs while avoiding fire easily with countermeasures. Later upgrades improve its performance against enemy missiles and overall mobility.

Without the Berkut, Cartel would have been completely defenseless against enemy air units. Indeed the Grinch exists and fills in this much-needed niche, especially against helicopters, but outside of very slow aircraft like X-32s, nEUROns and B-2 Spirits or those that linger in the area for quite a while, they can't do much. Combined with the overall inefficiency of Railgun Turrets, Skyguard Turrets and Otomatics, Berkut ends up being the only viable option to eliminate aircraft before they pose a threat. For what it does, the Berkut is rather cheap, with a lower credit cost than the PAK FA and F-22 Raptor and having countermeasures by default, while its high speed allows it to conveniently shoot down whatever it passes. When upgraded, the Berkut can prove to be quite a menace, being difficult to destroy unless within a heavily protected airspace, and even then a lot of missiles would be necessary just to catch up with one Berkut. As a fast stealth aircraft, Berkuts can also be used as a de facto scout unit, given Valkyrie's extreme cost and X-32's low speed, even if other units already handle it decently well.

Unfortunately, that's where the positives stop. Although Berkut is cheap and efficient, it isn't the best, with the F-22 Raptor and PAK FA both having additional attributes that diminish its value. As an air superiority aircraft it faces no competition on its own due to being the only viable option in its niche for the Cartel, but it has its own limitations. While it does have high speed to compensate, the general downtime often reduces its utility, during which a strategically deployed air squadron can become virtually unopposed. More often than not, Cartel would have to instead rely on the Grinch with their own Barracks, which can cost more but prove to be much more versatile over time. And while it is able to deny as many missiles as possible, Berkuts can and will be eventually overwhelmed when extremely large amounts of anti-air units target it, not to mention the likes of Phalanx which can easily damage aircraft at close range without firing missiles. Though with high speed, Berkuts don't actually make the best escorts either, as the Valkyrie is easily sufficient on its own and might fight with resources over them. This leaves Berkuts at times without a place to shine, although they can still be put to use just as well as their counterparts.