The Phantom was an horrible airfighter. It only could use thrust as an advantage and after that it hat to bug out. So going vertical and then move in for missile shot. At that time it had no gun because it was seen as outdated. Later after huge losses they added the Vulcan but there was not much else to do then add it under the nose and increase some nose volume. So it did win thanks to good training and thrust. And even then... The opponent was very weak (it had no top training and farmers were good enough to repair, arm and fight). The Phantom was a superb bomb truck but had zero agility. No wonder that is was called the flying brickstone.