If the last operational Vulcan flight was in Mar 1984 and the Tornado F3 didn't enter service until Nov 1985, how would the Vulcan/F3 assessment have been conducted....?
The F2 was a dog - underpowered and only capable of meeting the spec if it left 2 'winders off.
Or did you mean
Lightning F3? We did a fair number of Warton 'F3 trials' AAR support sorties involving a Lightning and a Torndao - it was often tempting to ask which was fighter and which was target!
The 18228 would not have picked up the F3 radar in most modes until the missile was well on its way. The so-called ability of a Vulcan to defeat a fighter was true ONLY if the fighter was stupid enough to lock early or to try to turn in a high level dog fight. High speed snap up attacks would probably never have been noticed by the Vulcan.
Mind you, with a little knowledge it was often possible to defeat a F3 during 'high flyer' exercises in the Malvinas.....
