Like every airplane it had its plusses and minusses. Designed for stand off missions to protect the carriers it wasn't very good in the dogfight. Large engines which guzzled fuel, and had a bad tendancy to have compressor stalls, variable geometry wings which gave its opponent information about energy. Large A/C for a carrier, reducing the numbers which could be carried.
AIM-54 which could strike A/C from long distance, RADAR which was very advanced for its time. No catapult bridle. The return of a gun on Navy A/C.
The list goes on.
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