Meme Guide: F-104 and Friends

Yes, this video is inspired by ManyMilesAway's "Salty Unicorn Reviews" series.
Yes, its a meme and not meant to be taken 100% seriously. Please dont type 10 paragraphs in the comments about how butthurt you are
Since some of the utter idiots at War Thunder top tier are too stupid to fly the F-104 Starfighter, and especially the premium F-104S TAF and undertiered F-104A, so here is a simple guide (full of memes). This video was originally intended for the F-104S ASA and F-104S TAF since they faced F-16s and MiG-29s, but branched out to also include the F-104J, F-104G, and F-104A. Lets hope that gaijin does not further ruin top tier jets with AMRAAMs and R-77 in the upcoming update and make this video outdated.
Who even reads the description under a video anyways? You must be really bored.
We have a discord server! link: / discord
We also have a squadron in war thunder! enlist in the D0NUT squadron today! (that 0 is a zero, not a O)
Chapters:
0:00 - Prologue
0:56 - Introduction
1:49 - History
7:02 - Starfighter 101: F-104 basics
7:58 - F-104A/C - 9.3
11:14 - F-104J/G - 10.3
16:04 - F-104G - 10.7
17:56 - F-104S/TAF - 11.0
20:10 - F-104S.ASA - 11.3
25:35 - Modifications
26:21 - Epilogue

[@Loudward__]

Being a fan of donut is like a long distance relationship with a good friend that only responds to your text every few months.

[@flamingkittengaming6172]

fax tho

[@RobertNowagarski]

I’m that friend lol

[@AtomicBlastPony]

It's called "quality over quantity", most KZbinrs have forgotten it exists

[@PanzerPeruna]

lol

[@Creamin_All_Offensive]

Playing an F-104 is like being that shitty friend that text you sometimes and destroys your mood.

[@groucho1080p]

fun fact: on the F-104S ASA irl the pilots would literally turn the RWR off and fly without it because it would randomly pick radar signals

[@Sapphire_North]

So... it was too good of a radar? Or not good enough?

[@uberschnilthegreat22]

@@Sapphire_North I'm guessing too good, as in it was *so* goddamn sensitive to unrelated radar signals that it would just randomly pick them up

[@Sapphire_North]

@@uberschnilthegreat22 Yeah, that's what I thought but I just wasn't entirely sure

[@groucho1080p]

@@Sapphire_North the RWR was shit, it triggered randomly. radar was pretty modern, for a starfighter atleast

[@Sapphire_North]

@@groucho1080p Ah, I see. That checks out

[@Registered_Simp]

The F-104S ASA is literally the epitome of "Nah, I'd win". Bro slays gods like it's his 9-5

[@revolver265]

Am I a piece of shit pencil? Yeah. But it's called "trash can", not "trash can't".

[@Registered_Simp]

@@revolver265 Good ASA players have so much main character energy you swear you can hear the Latin music emanating from their cockpits

[@RD_unia]

​@Registered_Simp the real question here is, do you run Aspides or 4 Ls?

[@Registered_Simp]

@@RD_unia I refuse to sacrifice my gun. Run 4 L's

[@RD_unia]

@@Registered_Simp valid.

[@GipsyDanger41]

> Balance is dead > Blood is fuel > Top tier match maker is full “May god forgive these downtiered MiG 29s cuz I won’t, while forgiving them is up to god, sending them to him is UP TO ME” Bro dropped the coldest lines ever uttered and thought we wouldn’t notice 🥶🗿.

[@barnykirashi]

And then Devil Trigger to make it even fucking colder

[@GipsyDanger41]

@@barnykirashi Fr

[@Serkay64]

The german F104G actually had AIM9Ls at the end of its service. The reason it has AIM9Js is because it carried AIM9Js during Training in the US, the same reason the german F-4F has them

[@thorluis226]

The german government never purchased aim-9 J or E, so if is were correct, the f-104 would either have aim-9F or aim 9L

[@luschmiedt1071]

​@thorluis226 definitely! ... if we give countries in WT what they ordered in real life. I mean in a WW3 scenario all those NATO stocks would be used interchangeably anyways. Otherwise we also would need to think about how many missiles of each kind each country had. 😅

[@hubril7921]

tbh 104G with 4 9Ls would either be extremely over BRed or completley under BRed regarding the br compression. same with the F-4F (if it doesn't get a new ICE varient with AMRAAMs added)

[@Tigershark_3082]

The most interesting thing in regards to the F-104's gun is that it was technically always meant to have one (the XF-104 had it), but the Vulcan had feeding issues in its earliest incarnation. When the Vulcan was brought to a useable state, that's when it was re-implemented on the F-104A.

[@Epic_candle]

The RWR on the F-104 S.ASA looks so pathetic that I just can't stop laughing lmao

[@SmoggyFroggy]

it's dog💩.

[@Lexus-fo3ey]

1:44 another fun fact in Germany it has the nickname Erdnagel and Witwenmacher which translate to Dirtnail and Widowmaker because of its high crash rate

[@AtomicBlastPony]

It's the American MiG-21 in literally every way huh, from being called a pencil/pipe to being called a flying coffin

[@gandalf97]

no one tell this man that we made an upgrade to the upgrade of the upgrade of the upgrade of the 104 aka the f-104s-asa-M with better avionics and other upgrades to the cockpit like gps. also side note the asa and asa-m could carry the aim-9LI aka a m seeker on a L body and that the asa could carry 6 missiles and not the 4 gaijin gave the asa, they knew it would have been way too powerful otherwise *huffs personal copium tank*, the asa-m lost the belly pylons and was only fitted with air to air missiles and no other ordinance so it explains why gaijin thinks the asa should have the 4 missiles only. anyway gaijin where asa-m with aim-9LI?

[@jamesbuckner4791]

Yall have a very unhealthy addiction to speed... then again yall have the best flying conditions for the 104. Stable air and stable weather.

[@StrikeWyvern]

I was the guy who said F-104s are singlehandedly ruining the 8.3 experience at 10:40! I was so salty that match I just instantly left after, now on a whim I see this and see I didn't run into a F-104 abuser, but a chad who knows it's flat out broken. I salute you sir.

[@coxpwner]

The second half of the F104S.ASA review was some of the most badass war thunder content i've ever seen. I replayed that segment like 5 times

[@riccardotassoni9825]

In Italy it was nicknamed Spillone (hatpin or more generally any big pin). Other firms wich contributed to the S variant were: Piaggio (Vespa rule), SACA, SIAI-Marchetti, Aerfer, Macchi, Officine Aeronavali e Alfa Romeo (the og F1 dominators).

[@NitsuJTrigger]

i hope the asa gets its jammer in the future and can consume without limitations

[@Space_Reptile]

"whats up w/ car manufacturers building these things" wait till you find out that Ford Built the sidewinders for the F104

[@FifingFossil]

And that Japanese was build by Mitsubishi

[@TheKitsuneHina]

Germany: We need new CAS plane Lockheed: We offer F-104 for CAS Germany: Surely nothing bad will happen with using the F-104G to conduct CAS :clueless:

[@thorluis226]

Don’t forget the bribery!

[@pko6596]

13:30 correction the italian f104 G gets only 2 aim9js unlike the german one which gets 4 aim 9js also the f104 s can only take aim7e's and its the f104 asa that can take the aspide doesnt matter either way since both have to give up the gun to take radar missles

[@lolsadboi1238]

ain’t that cool that the german one gets more missiles that the italian one but its the same br? super fair

[@pko6596]

@@lolsadboi1238 until recently the chinese f104g used to be same br as the german one despite being the same plane but with nor flares and now its the same br as the f104j which is the same plane but with more missles Its classic gaijin balancing

[@DanielSantos-df3tc]

U can actually bring the gun and the aspide together if u only bring one and 3 aim9's ​@@pko6596

[@Astral-wv1eg]

We absolutely lawn dart maxxing with this one

[@terremotoraptor]

as you can see by my pfp i love italian starfighters lol my uncle was a starfighter pilot, and boy oh boy did he love the thing. He loved how difficult it was to land it, and thought that the eurofighter was too easy of a plane to fly when they introduced it in 2004 lmao

[@creepenator3418]

I was lowkey pissed off at life but I just watched this video and I genuinely feel so much better. Also mig21 meme guide?

[@Desiro1337]

I just discovered your channel and its a frickin war crime that you don't even have 10k subs. You should get the Nobel price for peace for your vids. Seriously incredible videos

[@jedinight2353]

"running away to their airfields like a bunch of pussies" Not me and my jet with 47 seconds of gas, 23 rounds of ammo, and no missile's

[@sofielee4122]

I will forever love the italians for pushing my favorite plane way past anything it was ever meant to do cause "fuck it we have them why not" 10/10 phenomenal

[@1nv15BL3]

The actual history behind it is that the US bribed Italian politicians so fucking much that there was no one in the defense sector able to make a logically-sound decision.

[@vaclavkolar6750]

I love how the intro you used in f-16 video with pics of 104 is same here with f-16 pics. This is genius level

[@hagridflower2907]

I was kinda hoping the twist would be "I meant mig-21 the entire time, but I guess the f-104 is here also"

[@StealthCloudchaser]

I just found out about your channel through the MiG 29 video, I love your content, It is entertaining and very helpful.

[@rydersanderson8225]

A little nitpicky detail, Canadian Starfighters did actually carry radar (R-24A NASARR), though only in a dedicated air-to-ground mode. They also carried an inertial navigation system (LN-3-2B) as well as TACAN (AN/ARN-52). I can confirm however that we did indeed fuel them with pure Canadian maple syrup. Cheers, great video✌️

[@CaptainLegionary]

The callback to the F-16 video was my favorite part lol😂 Shit was actually kinda funny

[@Frogg-YT]

F104 is probably the funniest plane i know, death pencil 😂

[@thorluis226]

If I remember, Lockheed got in trouble since one of the main reasons of the export “success” was due to bribery.

[@thememeteam858]

Probably due to all the pilots dying due to all the crashing because of its disastrous stall speed

[@revolver265]

Every time someone asks me to play [insert BR the F-104A/C/J/G has been incongruously jammed into] I'll always take the pencil jet, it's just so bad, and yet so good. A friend sent me this video, your work is excellent, humor is on point! :)

[@revolver265]

Also at 7:31 (since this comment is now hearted so editing it will remove that) if you are in a duel with another starfighter (we call this a "draw" - no poor sod that has to fly this plane really wins) slower is the answer! I beat one of my top 100 friends by using the Vulcan as an airbrake to fall behind him and turn his J79 into a bill of sale at a scrap metal dealer.

[@thatturtleguy1697]

Love these vids man saw the MiG 23 and friends vid a few weeks ago and encouraged me to grind the mld and Lordy lord it is the king of the flogger’s and a beast a 11.3

[@Godvana_]

Few corrections: - Italian F-104G only get 2 AIM-9Js - German F-104Gs did use AIM-9Js while training in the US (and later the Marineflieger used AIM-9Ls) - German F-104Gs have slightly more powerful J79-MTU-J1K engines

[@MasaMasater]

The Italian F104G only has 2 missiles instead of 4, so it’s basically a direct downgrade over the German one lol. Also the S used AIM7E missiles, not Aspides, as those are only on the ASA. A funny thing about the gun block though is that there was a bug during the first day of custom loadouts in which you could take the missiles AND the gun, without needing the aim block. I got to keep that loadout so now I am probably one of like under a thousand players who are able to take both at the same time, and it is super funny to freak people out with it.

[@sakuraibby]

Man, I can barely keep my attention for like 5 seconds, and you kept me hooked for 30 minutes straight and made me laugh so fucking much LMFAOOOO

[@idfkwhattowrite4838]

I actually enjoyed the F-104J... emphasis on -ed. It was the first "modern"/post-Korean war jet I ever got an ace in. This happened last year, when it still only had 4 AIM-9Js and was at 10.7. When the custom loadout option dropped, I was THRILLED that I was finally able to bring rockets as makeshift flares and man were they my absolute saviors. My aced match was like a month or so after the A-10 craze and I've gotten quite used to flaring their AIM-9Ls with the rockets. It was also my main grinder for the F-4EJ and EJ Kai, it will always have a special place in my heart, no matter how horrendous it becomes in the current matchmaker.

[@just_a_meme123]

Grinding the soviet at 8.3 tree and my main fear isn’t anything *but* F-104’s, you cannot catch them, you cannot kill them, the *will* fly away from you at mach jesus, and they will come in from the stars.

[@foe111]

Ngl I love the ASS-A and seeing you love it is great because it is sooo underrated

[@Givenbeatle360]

this is TOO GOOD FOR A YTER LIKE U, UR MY #1 FAV NOW!!!

[@RetroRuin]

1 minute in and my boy completely mischaracterised the only reason it was a popular jet Bribes, Lots and Lots of bribes. The indisputable best thing about it is that it indirectly lead to the creation of my favorite stealth jet, The F-117 Nighthawk and it single handedly saved Lockheed martin from becoming bankrupt

[@DonutWithMustache]

oh dont worry i talked about that a few times (i.e in the history section where i said "Scamming various militaries")

[@not_aruej]

finally a new video i love ur videos

[@disturbeddude123]

Fleet Destruction's Siren's Song is an absolute banger of a soundtrack

[@jfd9616]

There's a museum around Langley BC I got to see when visiting family, which has a F104 I can't remember if it's still running or not, but I got to sit in it, shockingly to me, it was quite comfortable. "it's not like those Maple Syrup drinking idiots know how to use planes" made me laugh as a Canadian btw.

[@Rudolf_mod]

I love those vids, very good job ❤

[@rahulsamant2003]

this channel is a GEM!

[@MeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowww]

The italiens maybe be stupid in many ways, but the moment they building something that is eccentric, has temperament and goes fucking fast, they are giving hearth and soul to go above and beyond. They just have that fire.

[@1nv15BL3]

Replace "stupid" with "greedy" and you get a historically accurate statement.

[@callsignsaint1377]

With this video alone, you have my sub thank you also I’m the F-104 TAF at 23:22

[@RoggenrollaWT]

I mained Italy when they started adding f104s, it was soo much fun! The F104S.ASA was different, it was first plane with all aspect missiles in game. That time was something else)

[@benni1015]

F104s with it's aim 7 used to be the greatest fun I had in game. Especially when you could pop clueless AV 8s out of the sky in a downtier and troll the shit out of the Mig 21 bis sweatlords with your speed. Ngl i would rather have aim 9bs on my F104s and the old presets, so i could just abuse this speed again.

[@RoggenrollaWT]

@@benni1015 I would pay so much money to play that old top tier again!

[@seskorirkeashimrui3556]

about the 9.3 starfighters, the lighting and sea vixen get actually all aspect you with red tops against 104s. it's very risky for them but it's possible.

[@guyguy7757]

Can't wait for the me 262 episode 🎉

[@darkcassoulet1041]

omg, this has to be the best WT video i've seen since Zetaris 4 years ago

[@DonutWithMustache]

getting compared to Zetaris is the compliment of all time, honestly.

[@kunicrossgaming]

Actually my best starfighter matches so far have been with the F104J having 6 sidewinders is just nice, need to avoid the all aspects a bit but going really low right through the middle then turn and mop up the enemy team from behind works really much more often than you would expect.

[@Dark_Productions]

Absolutely Fantastic Video ♥

[@timihendrix01]

F 104 even inspired a rock concept album by members of Hawkwind, including Lemmy Kilmister on bass

[@TheTmieBandit]

Almost missed that vulcan cannon being brand new & immediately slapped on a plane bit, that was funny

[@OnlyEeveePL]

I love yours montages in episodes :3 Tornado next

[@derritter3873]

As someone who fully spaded the F-104J, I can confirm it was painful. And that was a long time ago, when it was at 10.7 with 4 missiles. I will say though, the livery’s are very nice. I just gotta say though, they should just give it countermeasures and move it back to 10.7. I’d prefer that over it being flareless at 10.3. And don’t say anything about “muh realism”, when the F-5C has countermeasures. I mean, Japan already has the F-16AJ, so where’s the issue.

[@fabihubi7039]

I have never experienced the amounts of hate I encountered spading both, the 104A and the 104C in air rb.

[@danzet2490]

Funnily enough the F-104 ASA came out in same update as custom loadouts and gajin kinda forgot to make the aspide exclusive to gun. In like a week they fixed that and made it require aspide aim block in place of gun but in the week i grinded out the ASA and aspides so now i forever have loadout with 2 aim9Ls, 2 aspides and gun on top of it

[@Gest_613]

F-104J was the first ever rank 6 jet for me. Thought that was just the norm for jets and couldn't understand why people played jets. Despite the suffering, I somehow grinded to rank 7 with it, but holy shit I can't belive I flew on that thing over 100 matches without committing an unimaginable catastrphy.

[@nesthakchen]

love the vids!

[@AlphaJulietBravo1]

Girls und Panzer OST mentioned And you're lucky, I had to grind the 104J before its update for the 6 missiles

[@lucasz8892]

I was not expecting that verstappen pic. 😂😂 nice touch

[@skyhawk2407]

I ended up laying the german F-104G when it got added. It was so painful at the time (it was added with no flares and only 9B's) but still can't help but love my widowmaking tent peg.

[@andym.s.5231]

ooh yes my favourite thing in the afternoon, lawn darts

[@snneakydevil]

Most underrated Ph Channel ever

[@wolvetica]

> "you should play this thing, its fun!" > grinding air trees in Warthunder > warthunder grind

[@walsh5243]

love it you could do one for the mig 21s

[@8ballentertainment.885]

As someone who spent way too long getting good at the ASA when grinding for the f16, it is lovely to see someone actually recognize how funny that plane is. Also, you are wrong on one thing with it; aspides are god aspides are life

[@Kamonster]

As a Canadian I am seething rn. Mainly sadly cause you right lol (also nice GuP soundtrack)

[@Planeboi_2]

He finally did it after so long 👏

[@torgeirlundbekk7749]

Love this serie❤️

[@aseortoalgoritmo7002]

As an italian i couldn't stop laughing, good job buddy

[@mab2187]

I spaded the F104J back when bonus RP per kills wasn't a thing and it didn't had 6x9Ps, just had 2x9Es.

[@Foremarkex]

The Lightning came in to service 4 years before the F104. They were contemporaries.

[@royalwolf7115]

Regarding Fiat and Mitsubishi, did you forget they were the same companies that used to makes planes back in WW2? Fiat came up with the CR32/42 and G50/55 while Mitsubishi came up with the Zeros. Don't understand why you were surprised when their names came up. It's like having a surprised Pikachu face after learning that BMW was involved in making the 109s.

[@LeLe-pl8jq]

DonOt stop making videos 😉 good stuff dude

[@Nightmare_52]

5:56 F-104ZAZA F-104A/C is definitely too low of a br for their capabilities, though it does make some pilots complacent as they just expect to outrun everything in every scenario, but then they get my Yak-28B and a few cannon rounds up their afterburner because they forget its really good at climbing after them (gaijin give me the interceptor Yak-28 already)

[@97thGalaxy]

For the F-104J you didnt even mention how its enemies (like the draken) ARE BASICLY AS FAST AS YOU

[@mich421]

I remember In training when the Italian F104s beat the German MiG 29s in Sicily. And then they drank a beer together lol

[@simon_figas1699]

Hardest speech I've ever heard at the end there.

[@theblacksplit]

Now I want that f104 pen😭 Edit: that devil trigger hits hard

[@michaellemasters7173]

The Lightning is a crazy good counter to the F104. They have similar speed and acceleration but the Lightning very slightly out turns and out rolls the 104. Lightning just has worse energy retention and guns. Using this combination, it’s able to force and overshoot then sit behind the 104.

[@ckadefoliat2882]

Damn this video was actually using my 2 favorites countries (canada, italy) as punching bags holy shit.

[@Breakfast598]

I've never gotten a match below 10.0 in this thing and the mig-21 is a genuine threat

[@viper_theSU27]

the max verstappen joke aged well after australia

[@kennyxkazuki713]

13:15 fun fact, Mitsubishi was an aircraft company before a car company, with their first plane taking flight in 1906, Their first car was in 1917. Both of these are strange, as Mitsubishi started out as a shipping firm in 1870. Now they just make half of Japans appliances, 80% of its military. And 100% of its space program. As well as pencils. Edit: 14:05 imagine stock grinding it right when they added the f16 and mig 29, before the br changes. Eating all aspects missiles from 20 different 4th gens who out preform you in your one good metric, speed and acceleration, with no flares. Fun shockingly, most people would just ignore you until its to late lol, the amount of cope in chat when i got a 6 kill versus their shiny new 4th gens was beautiful.

[@dofusquentin]

i love the slavian reference in the J section lol

[@Drink4Exp]

currently the best reviews for war thunder out there

[@Leptospirosi]

Slight correction about the ASA (thanks god there is no ASAM in game too! 😵‍💫) it wasn't a new plane, but just upgraded old f104S built between the 1972 and 1974 (the younger airframes), because the Germans were delaying the EF2000 on purpose as they had just got the Mig 29 and they never liked to spend money. The ASA was a tentative stopgap, completely outdated and living on cannibalized F104S, but it had to do. It also was a fantastic interceptor, as all the 104S were, not replaceable by the f16 which didn't got the AMRAAM until the late nineties, or the F18A which was too slow to get up to where it was supposed to be to get the bad guys. the F20 would have been fantastic (AIM-7F) and even considered but never went in production. Italy even got some Tornado F3, waiting for the Typhoon, so utter s***t that they had to call a Duch F16 to kill a Mig 29 over the Adriatic as the F3 was deemed "unable" to face anything at close range, in case of a dogfight. They even leased a squadron of F16A for a couple of years, before the typhoon was finally delivered 10 years later then it was supposed to enter service.

[@thatoneraotguy2590]

as an italian, i completely agree with italy being batshit stoobid they were even offered the F-4 somewhere in the late 70s, but they said nuh uh, for some fucking reason

[@1nv15BL3]

"for some fucking reason". Propaganda Due, Operazione Gladio, Mani Pulite, Scandalo Lockheed, mai sentito parlare?

[@thatoneraotguy2590]

@@1nv15BL3 no, but i am ready to learn also this doesn't change the fact that our air force is proud of having used the F-104 for more then 40 years, which is really not something to be proud of

[@Mucombo]

Fun fact about the 9.3 104 if you squad up with someone with a 8.0 battle rating you can get downtiered even further and fight 262s

[@xel_los]

good lord thanks for the heads up on canadian healthcare and did you steal your arms from Robin Williams?

[@Gimergames]

“Royal Pizza Hut Air Force “ I almost dropped my iPad. Holy crap that was funny.

[@1nv15BL3]

Which is funny, because Italy stopped being a Monarchy at the end of WW2.

[@ykm205]

The F1 banter oh my God

[@mile.9768]

24:25 ULTRAKILL reference? fucking based.

[@DTXShadows]

24:31 one of the best one liners ive ever heard

[@Citron-gb7sf]

I have spades both A and B when it was 10.0 that felt painful but I loved it when it worked then I got to play the J on 10.3 about 3 weeks later and man that think felt bonkers compared to the previous and I loved it. Just remembered it did. Not have the 6x aim-9p but only 4x but still that's much better missile than the aim-9b on 10.0 LOL still loving 104 ATM grinding Italy half way in to 104G can't wait to play it 😂😂😂😂😂

[@serdarcam99]

i was one of the first players to play f104 and spaded it immiedately it was so fun to use it with min fuel you could arrive at enemy base before they could reach 1km altidute

[@nichendrix]

The only problem I have with this meme video is that Fiat Aeronáutica was one of th earliest plane manufacturers in the world producing planes since 1908 until 1969, when it merged with Aerfer became Aeritalia, later renamed Fiat Avio, it has a division specialized in jet engines, manufacturing the engines for the Panavia Tornado and the American Harriers, among others. So it kind of one of the aircraft companies with the longest tradition of making aircraft and jets, way more than most American companies whose eventual fate was to be aquired by Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop.

[@jollygreenjames5718]

The reason why the F-104 was exported so much was because of Lockheed bribing the government. The plane that should’ve exported was the F-11 Tiger which would’ve have been really cool to see in foreign service.

[@almightyIrie]

The F-104G Widowmaker. Because greed and corruption are more important than pilot's lives apparently..