F18 dogfighting

i bet the long range phoenix shots would be a pretty easy kinematic
defeat by a knowledgeable bandit.

I won't say that the AIM-54 is a wonder weapon, however please consider:

That thing is coming at you at about Mach 4;
It is descending as it does so;
It is in a ballistic flight, which means no tell-tale smoke or contrails;
For such a terminal flight, it is a tiny thing, almost impossible to acquire
visually;
It can pull 18G at the end - granted, for a very limited time;
It has a huge fragmentation warhead which translates into a good-sized kill
zone.

Beatable, yes, easy, not by a very long shot.
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José Herculano