Dropping fuel tanks

IS there a way, how to force AI aircraft to drop fuel tanks if they are empty, or when the fighter needs to akcelerate to chase a target? It is quite sad to see them fighting with draq around Mach 1, if they are able to broke Mach 2 without them...

I don't think you can, thought which aircraft is having the issue and in what situation?

I can't think of many fighters that would be so encumbered by drop tanks and if they were, the reason would probably be excessive drop tanks. It's rare to need 3 tanks for example, even on something like the F-18.

Typical situation is CAP mission with F-4 or F-5. They have external tanks for longer endurance. If they are detecting target or radar signals from assigned area - they start to climb to hi level and accelerate at full power. With the tanks they are slow. They are dropping them when they get close and start dogfighting.

I see, the F-5 could be a problem. The F-4 should have better endurance, and I don't think it needs more than 2 tanks in most situations.

The only thing that comes to mind is swapping the AI when they start to engage, so for example, you have a CAP flight with fuel tanks. When they detect something and start to attack, remove the CAP flight and spawn in a copy without fuel tanks.

This can be done with triggers, but it won't be exact.