And of course that could NEVER happen in real life................. that's the point of exercises - they ARE realistic
In real life you press the button and clean the wings before committing to the engagement - not something the bean counters will allow in peacetime!
Cant speak for modern times, but it SOP back in the day to put F4s in C or D fit on the middle and outer CAPs and rotate them through the tanker so that they were using just external tank fuel so that, when committing and dropping the tanks they’d be entering the fight with full internal fuel.