PS, forgot to mention that it also took a brilliant bit of intercept control too.
You have to be joking. easy as p*ss. 180 displaced about 16 miles, fighter M1.2 + M0.1 for each 5000ft above 35K. Roll out range 2nm + half the height difference in nm and convert height to speed would have been the book figures, but with a slow target you'd stay subsonic and just roll out much further behind and then accelerate and climb.
Once had a smart-arse Canberra pilot who'd found out where the jet stream was and climbed into it in the opposite direction and throttled back. He was, I kid you not, going
backwards at M0.2. Now that needed a bit of a long roll out....
High speed, high level targets were much more difficult, especially the FAF Mirage IVs. We'd get the heads up from London as they headed up the north sea with a KC-135 and have an F6 plugged into a tanker waiting. Half an hour later they'd appear at M1.8 at around 55K heading south. Break off the tanker accelerate and take a frontal Redtop shot. Till someone screwed up and it was an F3 with Firestreaks. It was given to a WO controller who managed a 5nm rollout. The pilot, Dave Fiddler, actually managed to close to a mile, took his shot, went Liner over B1 at around 50k - and diverted into CS because he didn't have the fuel to make WT....
Remember U16As? Tgt M1.6, Ftr M1.8, 180 x 26 converting to a 90 x 12. Closing at M3.4 (34nm a minute) - with a 4 rpm radar, and if you waited to see you'd missed it. Sweeps gone through, bit early, wait, wait, NOW, "Starboard 190"..... Sh*t - 2 seconds late.....