But when it came to the F-4, we simply didn't know what we were doing.
Although I thought it would have been blindingly obvious, what I actually meant was 'when it came to
defending ourselves against the F-4, we simply didn't know what we were doing.'
There were indeed target misidents though. As the Yuk-air F-27 crews inbound to Narr'ch via the Bravo / Charlie Juliets would no doubt attest. Or the C-130 / HH-53 AAR formation Bluntishead once vectored us onto during some 2v2...... The odd airliner was tapped during Coffee Charlies - but probably never knew!
Back to the topic of rules, low level visidents against lights out targets at night (phase 3 VIDs) required
very specific rules. Probably some of the most tricky (and sphincter-puckering) intercept work we did, but statistically quite safe.
No-one would have dreamt of ignoring the rules for phase 3 VIDs, for to have done so would probably have caused a mid-air.