Snip.

As Frijoles mentioned, how does the new generation of IR missiles and
HMCS change this? Is it worth maintaining energy if the "newest" missile
can pull more g's than your plane and has enough energy to just that even
if
it's launched from a bad angle? Are the newest IR missiles at this level
of
capability (does anyone know if the now 20-yr old R-73 is being updated)?
Can you tell us any of this without violating national security?
Thanks for the interesting and informative discussion!

Marine F-18 friend got to play with the Germans and their Mig-29's a couple
years ago. Somewhat similar match as the F-18 vs F-16. If they threw out
the anchor and used the Bug's superior radius versus the Mig's somewhat
superior rate, the Mig driver would call a shot well off boresight, and well
before the Bug driver reached a firing solution. Given an all-aspect
missile in the air, energy and airspeed (creating some tracking problems for
the missile and displacement of your target aircraft from the
countermeasures you'll deploy) versus no energy and no airspeed (a point
source of IR in the sky) would be the preferred state. Hardly ideal, but
preferred.

R / John