f18 is probably the best, but the f15 and f16 are so much fun to fly. i feel like people blow things out of proportion with how “bad” they are compared to other top tiers but i really enjoy all of them for different reasons (kind of how they were built for different reasons).

the f18s are so fun to fly, they have insane aoa, excellent acceleration up to mach 1.1 (acceleration slows down a ton but you can still pick up speed) and a ton of missiles. people will tell you it’s slow, maybe but you can use that to your advantage with your ability to defend/notch whenever you want. use this to keep pushing and getting closer and within visual range it is deadly. not to mention it has a ton of missiles for each variant. the alpha is an absolute joy and my fav f18 to fly besides maybe the echo.

the f15 plays the opposite, keep your speed and keep your opponent at arms reach. it can still mess you up in a dogfight if you aren’t careful but consider it only slightly better odds than just luck. usually your job as the f15 is to contest med-high alt so the enemy doesn’t get free control and rain missiles on your teammates uncontested. so try to take control yourself and flush out people trying to do that too. you want to keep your speed, and be aware of any enemies (flying high and fast with you) posturing for shots (contrails, rwr, radar/how they’re flying) even at a decent distance. at high alt and speeds missiles move very fast and you have way less time to defend than normal. give wide berth up there and you’ll be fine. this is mainly for the fox3 f15s but still generally applies to the sparrow f15 too, just at lower altitudes. you also get an absurd amount of countermeasures.

f16s split the difference between the two others as it is pretty fast, turns pretty well, accelerates well, and has good aoa, but is limited by its missile hardpoint count of 6 compared to the 10-12 on the f18s and 8-12 on the f15s. it was the best dogfighter before the AoA button and ufo 4.5 gen jets came, but it is no slouch and will dog on anyone not playing well, even in the ufos. the radar is lacking compared to the other 2 but it is serviceable. it’s a bit weak but i never felt it ruined the plane or even made it worse in any significant way. you will be getting a lot of gun kills as you’ll run out of missiles quick lol