Yeeeah…
Except it forces you to pick between more mileage or gunpod on F-4C, Navy Phantoms and all three British Phantoms. The wing tanks would actually allow you to take full missile loadout, gunpod and have extra fuel to get to fight.
So saying it’s “better fuel tank” is subjective.
EDIT: You also get more fuel out of two wing tanks than one centerline tank. 370x2 vs 600x1
Also F-4s have 7 minutes of integral AB time, which is more than enough time outside the EC maps.
I haven’t run a fuel pod in a long time.
I even stopped running fuel pods on F-16s.
I use fuel tanks for different reason
Take minimum internal load and drop tanks. Use fuel from drop tanks until you get to fight.
Dump the tanks when you get to fight thus allowing you to get better performance from lighter fuel load.
So the f16 got the wing drop tanks?