Going to min A/B was certainly conducive to reducing the Spey smoke - which was never as bad as the J-79, I gather.
Although head sector BVR firings would usually take out a Vulcan quite easily, if the ROE required a positive ident before shoot and dumb tactics lead to a stern SW shot, then a well-fought Vulcan might have some chance. For example, I recall when fighting against a CF-101 from CFB Chatham NB, after he'd fired his simulated Genie and vapourised about a hundred cubic miles of sky as a result, things became a lot more balanced after the merge. I can still remember their tape..."Where'd he go? Ah, damn - he's behind us! How did you let something that big get into our six?" But that was mainly due to ROE in our favour....unlike the screech debrief later that night
There wasn't much to go wrong on an F-4 Q-launch if the engines started OK. No 'computer says no' electric jet problems. Start the left, start strapping in, 7 sec after starting the left, start the right, then continue strapping in whilst the jet winds up. When both gennies are OK, get rid of external power, then wait until the nav is happy with the IN, wait for the well-practised groundcrew to finish buttoning up the left start door and their OK to go thumbs up, then give the guys a wave and roar off down the Q-access track....
Mixed fighter farce was just that. Stagger out to the area with the poor little jet trainer valiantly trying to keep up; on the initial engagement, we'd fire a head sector Fox 1 then, after his one magic hard turn into a stern SW shot, he'd be home on fumes and we'd go back to CAP.