<Snipped quote by Foster>
I'm here to write a story with other players in a moderated game setting and have fun doing it. The "best" way of doing things may not always be the way that's chosen for the sake of the game, but it's a fictional story so there's not a lot of point in debating what would happen if these planes and weapons were really fighting this battle. We can make suggestions and inferences, but at the end of the day the law of plot overrides everything else (see bullet point #11 in the rules section).
It's great that you know all these fun facts and radio codes, etc. Maybe you've flown a military aircraft in combat- I haven't and I'd hazard a guess that most people in this forum haven't either. I may not be Chuck Yeager, but I can speak to some knowledge of what we're trying to do here in a Casual-RP and I think that's what will attract more membership and move the plot along.
<Snipped quote by Foster>
I'm having an absolute blast writing about it.
Pilatus hits the nail exactly on the head here.
It doesn't matter particularly what you know and all the wonderful factoids and technical details, or how many of them get projectile-vomited across the OOC; the point is the story and the setting.
I have stated multiple times in the OP and the rules about what kind of game this is. It's a dramatic (and fun) interpretation of the world, writ large for the purposes of excitement and fantasy, rather than adherence to reality. Some accessions to realism is the salt on the meal, or the guidelines we follow to understand things and work from as a base, rather than the law laid down.
Like he said, the law of plot and the most interesting/most exciting reason to do something, as well as the most convenient way to keep the players involved is the one that will win out, rather than the realism of anything, or what's 'best' in terms of tactics in a real world setting. That kind of reasoning is why, for example, we still have aircraft that are retired in the game - because it makes it more fun.
If that's not to everyone's taste, then sorry to hear that, but it's the game I've put up for people to join, and it's the game I'm running.