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While playing Red Tide campaign, especially the big ones nearly Kola Peninsula, I've seen some soviet fighters been able to outrun AIM 54 Phoenix !

I didn't kept the exact datas of what I've seen on several engagements, but the fact is that the AIM54 phoenix was quite too slow regarding its official speed of nearly mach 5.

I have set some AA patrols ambushes with F14, and waited to shoot the phoenix at mid their maximum range against incoming air patrols, and they were able to outrun them. From memory the missile speed was 800 knots, perharps 1000 but certainly not 4800 km/h. Even if the soviet planes gone for an evading dive at afterburner, even if it was a mig25 or mig31 (none of these in these case), the gap between the real speed of AIM54 and the top speed of soviet best planes would be 2/1++...

Boost-coast AAW missiles do not move at constant-speed, like cruise missiles or torpedoes do. The missile may be able to *reach* Mach 5, at burnout and at optimum altitude, but is not actually able to sustain that, and definitely not at the edge of its envelope.

In the early 00's, there were at least 2 cases of USN Phoenix shots fired at Iraqi fighters, both of them dragged out.

This is why *average sustained speed* is so important for AAW missiles, and why, for example, the Meteor (a nominally slower missile) is a much more practical weapon against agile targets.