Mirage and dagger have to fly long distance to reach the place where they was fighting thus have very little fuel left to maneuver , when the Mirages arrived on target they had little fuel left. This meant they couldn’t use afterburner and very little time on target. They could not use supersonic speed to their advantage due to fuel shortage so that limited them to subsonic which is equal to the speed of the Harrier wy , Mirage and dagger were force to fly low under radar horizon to evade Roland SAM thus their advantage in speed was negated , Harrier used a much more advanced missile the Aim-9L with all-aspect ability thus allow it to engage Mirage from much longer range while Mirage used an older version of aim-9 at that time that can only be fired in tail aspect, If both planes had met on equal terms with full weapons and fuel and the Harrier dont have fire support from SAM ,the Harrier would have been hard pressed to win as the Mirage could attack and break away at will.
Doesn’t your answer prove the point that situation, pilot etc are important factors into any engagement. Going just on stats the Harrier had a 100% record, so is the ‘better’ aircraft in that situation…
P.s. Agree with Moggy..Spiteful was the best. 😉
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