Guy Alcala wrote in
:
Matra Magic and/or R.530, and Sharkey says that the pilots who
flew the trials were anything but "Aces of the Base." He also
points out that his squadron had flown against and beaten the
527th TFTAS F-5Es, F-15s from Bitburg and F-16s at Decimomannu,
and both the latter a/c in particular were a couple of decades
ahead of the Mirage III in 1982, in performance, weapons and
avionics.

Nick Richardson (SHAR pilot downed by SA-7 over Bosnia)'s book "No
Escape Zone" contains a chapter about his squadron's exercise
against German MiG-29s before they were deployed to Bosnia. I
don't have the book on hand, but IIRC he considered the Fulcrum to
have better performance than the Sea Harrier in the close-in
fight.

In the WVR-only 2-vs-2 match, the SHARs killed both MiG-29s,
although Richardson's opponent got off the first missile (adjudged
defeated by flares), outmanoeuvred him and was lining him up from
behind when he forced an overshoot by VIFFing and fired the
decisive Sidewinder shot.

In the second scenario where BVR shots were allowed, the SHARs
attempted to Doppler-notch the MiGs, but failed to do it properly.
The Fulcrums apparently spotted them trying and deliberately broke
lock anyway, tricking the SHARs into thinking they had lost
contact. They then locked the Harriers up again and killed them
with simulated AA-10s as they closed to the merge.

(It was interesting to read a Western fighter pilot describing how
dangerous the MiG-29 was BVR - this was before the FRS.1s were
replaced by FA.2s. Just goes to show that everything is
relative...)

--Marcus