The F-4 story is a bit more nuanced than that. The issue wasn't that the F-4 didn't have a cannon, but that it was assumed that homing missiles would make teac

The F-4 story is a bit more nuanced than that. The issue wasn't that the F-4 didn't have a cannon, but that it was assumed that homing missiles would make teaching the art of dogfighting obsolete. This was proven to be a disastrous mistake. However once SFTI program (AKA TOPGUN) was established, the now much better trained American pilots had established a clear lead in air to air victories. We know that it wasn't the lack of a gun because a gun pod was developed for the F-4. The ratios of victories to losses of the gun pod equipped F-4's was worse than those without.