RedCoaster, that is indeed an accurate summary of the book's qualities. I had no real idea how much things had moved on with regard to the F3 Air Defence System's capabilities until I read your excellent book.
And boy, would I have liked to have flown 800KIAS+ at errm, '250' ft!
Two main factors show up time and again - the development of tactics and the use of Link16. AD force tactics have always been the province of hard-working QWIs, hence the old 180x0 AIM7EIII/AIM-9G attack/re-attack thing we learned at CGY on the F4 became the 150 ARA when I was (briefly) on 56 at WTM. A much better tactic - and that was just one example. Even as cr@p as I was, a bit of knowledge and some synergy regarding A/A gunnery techniques helped me to a 52% score on one APC trip - not bad for the old F-4! Tactics and technique, skill and trickery!
But Link16
must be the ace in the hand, surely? Being able to see what was going on at (some distance) from the fight must have given you a tremendous advantage?
I've campaigned long and hard for link-enablement in tankers. As far as the tanker is concerned, it gives the crew some SA and reduces the danger of fratricide. Not just for the tanker - I'm pretty sure that a switched-on crew watching the F-15/BlackHawk activity during OP.BOLTON might perhaps have stopped a tragedy. Equally, when an F-14 mistakenly plugged in to our jet during GW1 and wouldn't disconnect when told (we had a large CF-18 attack formation inbound and the F-14 had mis-id'd his tanker), we could have given him a snap to his assigned tanker. A minor use of Link16, but trying to persuade others of the mission-critical need for Link16 in a 21st century tanker is, well, not always easy! And, of course, the tanker acts as a relay for other users, whilst contributing high time and position quality and its own specifics to the network without the crew ever needing to lift a finger.
AD is a system, not a jet. That means everybody from the clerk who pays the cook who feeds the groundcrew who service the jet, the people who operate the jet, the jet itself, the missile system, the tactics, the AWACS team, the Link, the tanker-wanquerres - everybody and everything.
But sad spotters still think a 'good' fighter is something which flies 'cobras' at some airshow.....
With the latest chunterings about a 'no fly zone' in Libya, one last hurrah for the F-3 force with a push to a Mediterranean base must surely be a possibility, even at this late stage?