As a preface; Command: Modern Air / Naval Operations (CMANO) is a spiritual successor to the Harpoon simulator series; it comes in two versions; an $80 USD public version which I personally believe to be not much more than a game, as the stats are public domain figures and there's various inaccuracies that can't be corrected (CMANO throws a fit if one of its SQL databases is modified; I've tried as based on my understanding they understate the F-35 and F-22's figures). There's also a professional edition strictly for government and industry users which both features more realistic data and allows customers to input their own. I personally only own the public / game copy.
Anyway, so I threw together a scenario of the QE vs the AR as of 1985. The QE had 8x F-35Bs and they were limited to just using AIM-120Cs (4x internal if in an air-to-air configuration), a gun pod and up to 2x internal Paveways. The Ark had 8x F-4Ks, each equipped with 4x Sparrows and 4x Sidewinders, as well as a gun pod and a couple of drop tanks, as well as 4x Buccaneers each equipped with 4x Mk-13s, 1x Sidewinder and 1x AN/ALQ-101 and some tanks. The carriers started about 450NM away from one another and sailed closer.
The F-35Bs launched with 6x configured for air-to-air and 2x with Paveways. Their ESM detected F-4K radar emissions (half had their radars on) from a few hundred nautical miles away, spread out and closed head-on. As they got closer, their LPI AESAs picked up, ID'd and targeted the silent Phantoms as well. AMRAAMs were launched from near their max range, the Phantoms detected the missile contrails from 40NM and due to the number of missiles inbound, all Phantoms turned on their radars to try and detect incoming missiles. As the missiles got closer they attempted evasion.
About half the Phantoms were hit in the initial salvo, but only 1 was killed; the other 3 all had their comms and/or radar destroyed, making them appear dead to the rest of the Cold War forces, while those damaged Phantoms tried to continue on. The Buccaneers had been trailing by around 50NM, but given the size of the attack, turned around to put distance between them and the fight.
The F-35s split up with the 2x strike jets (which had expended their AMRAAMs) flying through the battle and towards the Buccaneers and Ark Royal (which had been detected via ESM). The rest of the F-35s continued firing at the Phantoms; the F-35Bs ran out of missiles before the last Phantom was killed, so one closed in and took it out with their gun (the Phantom wasn't manoeuvrable enough nor had the situational awareness to keep up, though the differences weren't that dramatic). While the Phantoms were being wiped out, the Buccaneers ran back to the Ark Royal to try and gain air cover. The 2x strike F-35Bs were detected by the AR's radars at around 50NM, but they couldn't ID the jets; they were manually set to hostile when the unknown contacts accelerated towards the carrier; bombs were dropped but the Ark detected the bombs and took them out with Sea Darts. The F-35Bs had disappeared off radar by the time the bombs finished being intercepted. The Buccaneers stayed overhead the carrier, as the enemy force's size was still unknown (in total only 4 F-35Bs were detected and only two were identified).
The rest of the F-35Bs had already returned to the QE and been hot re-armed with Paveways and AMRAAMs; once the other 2 were back and re-armed they all launched again. They took out the Buccaneers before the F-35Bs themselves were detected on radar and then launched 16x Paveways at the Ark. A couple malfunctioned and quite a few were taken out by Sea Darts, but at least 4 hit and they left the Ark with no long range radar, minimal comms, a few destroyed / damaged autocanons, a damaged deck and a major fire that then continued to grow and after 3 hours, caused it to begin sinking. The Ark only had 2x Sea Darts remaining by the end of that attack, so third F-35B strike would have destroyed it regardless.
