>>"No need to drop your load in a BVR engagement. I am just talking about a visual fight."<<
That's what I was talking about also. If an early F-16 is armed with a Sparrow and the fight for whatever reason goes visual, he has to dump his Sparrow? Sounds like a bad way to do business to me. But again, I'm seeing this from a rather narrow perspective. The US Navy is the only air force operating fighters off carriers, so my persepective is probably kind of skewed. In a different operating environment, this might make perfect sense.