From what I see the only real cheat is to destroy your target or make you invincible. I was hoping their was something in between we could tweak to make the game a little easier. For Instance

Make it so the guns don't overheat.
Give unlimited missles, maybe the Javelin
Change heavy fighers to light fighters

These would not take away the challenge. Once you fail a mission 4 times the game isn't fun any more.
Games have changed a lot since the days this was made. Back then games started easy and got progressively harder. Modern games start easy, get moderately difficult, then offer you a path to upgrade your players skills, your weapons, armor etc. they might make you grind a little to get there, but at least they give you an option and keep you playing.
Soap box rant over. Anyone have any ideas if these could be done? Can we go in the mission files and rename something to change these parameters?