No idea how you input things here, but it's way off base (first guess would be looking at speed and the fact you're saying you jettisoned tanks). They have a combat range of 627 nautical miles with a 1,247 lb. payload at 477 knots (548.55 mph) over 2.75 hours, with a combat speed of 1110 knots (1276.5 mph). External fuel tanks also almost double their capacity, from 1,073 gallons to 1,813 gallons.
https://web.archive.org/web/2022100...SAC/F-16C_Block_32_Falcon_CS_-_March_1991.pdf
The Japanese F-2 is basically just a modified/upgraded F-16, thus the PDF sourcing, just to note that the range shown was way off. You're right on the weight difference, though. Of course they could also just be flying in from carriers nearby- but I'll mark this down to the mangaka being more focused on the weapons and forgetting the fuel tanks.
...I wish you wouldn't try and "correct" people when every single metric you use is demonstrably wrong. This is just wasting my time and I don't really appreciate it.
1.) The F-2 is not an F-16. Yes, it is based off of the airframe but the F-2 is larger, has larger fuel tanks, has a larger wing (about 25% larger) and has more lift because of it. This changes every single aspect of its range and payload capacity and does so in very meaningful ways.
Because of this, using it to calculate fuel, range or payload in comparison to the F-2 is not applicable. At all.
2.) You cite a 1,247 pound payload for range (for the entirely differently sized aircraft) which is ignoring and overlooking two things: me citing their exact loadout (okay, now that I'm looking back it's 2x instead of 4x AAM-3s like I selected, but an extra 2x AAM-3s is not going to drastically impact anything here) and the manga showing their loadout. They're flying with 12x (TER with 3x Mk82s x2 on each wing - 12) Mark 82 Snakeyes. That's a
6,840 pound payload. That's OVER FIVE TIMES THE PAYLOAD WEIGHT you used to try and say my math is wrong.
3.) They aren't utilizing externals and, no, they likely didn't drop them either. They aren't be attacked, they have no reason to drop them. They aren't facing peer air threats. They have no reason to drop them.
4.) ...F-2s, and F-16s, are not carrier-capable aircraft. They have no tailhook, they have no ability to be launched and operated via catapult/CATOBAR and their landing gear are not capable of carrier landings. And Japan does not even have a carrier capable of operating... ANY... fixed wing aircraft in this manga's timeline. (Manga takes place in 2015 onwards, so no F-35B, and even the Japanese helicopter carriers aren't still configured for operational deployment of F-35Bs even in 2024, with the most that's been done is some USMC F-35Bs testing landings and take-offs on the Izumo just earlier this year.)
TL;DR: My range is correct except for the extra 2x AAM-3s (which adds a whopping 400 pounds to the aircraft and the missiles themselves are low drag - I doubt you'd get more than an extra dozen or so NM out of them not being there) and yours is entirely wrong based on the entirely wrong and different airframe and weight figures that at half an order of magnitude off and wrong.
I guarantee you CMANO did the math correctly to within a percentage point or two. It's a simulator used by defense analysts and contractors for a reason.