I'm amazed it even had missiles...
Frankly, with the capability and reliability of Firestreak and Red Top, it may have been better leaving them against the HAS wall to cut down the drag!
No-one would dispute Lightning's time to height ability, but its weapons and range let it down. I had always assumed it had been moved forward to Guttersloh because the Clutch bases were too distant from the action.
Surely equipped with the AIM-9 (even a -G x 4 ?) would have been an upping of capability.