Situational awareness (air to air)

I am trying to improve my situational awareness these days but the learning curve is not as steep as I'd like it to be

I’ve identified several issues . Any of the following statements may be wrong or show that I am missing something important and I would appreciate if you let me know what and how to get better at it:

IN A DOGFIGHT:

- I’d better keep my eyes glued on the target from the merge onwards. Otherwise, it’ll take (too much) time to visually reacquire it

- in ACM mode, the radar will, most of the time, not lock onto a target that passes through the scan area (this one is very frustrating since you cannot trust your eyes will always spot the enemy even when it’s in front of you - depending on what’s in the background). In a turning fight I mosty use it in vertical acquisition mode which should provide for a large horizontal radar coverage (I don’t know how thick the beam is though)

- usage of the AIM-9 seeker is of limited value as the sun may disrupt it and it does not cover a wide area anyway plus it is sound based and will not provide strong visual cues

- JHMCS is not linked to any IRST device as on the Su-27 (my understanding is that the latter will track any nearby IR signature - though not in a 360° field - and show a cue on the pilot’s helmet mounted display).

- use of the AWACS is of limited value since an enemy plane at BRA 101°, 2 nm, 10 500 ft when the AWACS detected it may very well be 155°, 1 nm, 9 000 ft after you get the message and start looking for it

WHEN IN BVR:

- provided at least one plane on either side has survived the volley of medium range missiles and that I am one them, and in the absence of a merge, I find myself always at a disadvantage (and more so against the AI than human players) because it is so difficult to visually spot an enemy plane more than 3 nm away and the F-18’s radar is too slow/inefficient at locking targets when in ACM mode.

When it comes to the hardware I use, it’s the following: 32” 2560×1444 on GTX 1080 with most settings maxed out. I recently got the 32” monitor (I had a 27” 1920×1080 before) and it made a significant difference in my ability to spot enemy planes while dogfighting. But I am under the impression I could be better at it, notwithstanding the material I use.

Any tips will help!

Thank you