Originally Posted by
pr00ne
And as for your snipe at the F3, it was NOT a fighter designed to mix it with Migs and Sukhois, it was a long range autonomous interceptor designed to loiter 400 miles off the UK coast at low level at night or in a snow storm and take out Regimental sized Backfire raids heading for the UK. NO other aircraft of the day, with the possible exception of the AIM-54 equipped F-14, came anywhere near meeting that requirement. It wasn't the fault of the F3 that the world changed in 1989.
The Americans had specifically requested the F3 be deployed during the beginning stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, because it was more capable than anything they had in countering a High Fast Flyer threat, in the form of the Iraqi MiG-31 Foxhounds. More so than the F-14.
Just because the RAF tried to use the F.3 in a role for which it was not designed, as you say, does not mean it was an ineffective platform. It was amazing at doing the job that it was designed to do.