You seem to have a nasty 'knowing-all' attitude issue. I see nothing insulting in my post, but still you take it to that level. Nice going.
Aren't the search, track, designation, launch and flight to the target part of a missile intercepting another missile process? The missile isn't going to fall off the pylon and guide itself to the incoming missile. So, the case of a Phoenix intercepting a missile in it's terminating pop-up phase is possible only if a Tomcat is on it's tail and even then it's questionable. If it's not likely to happen in real-life, makes it one of those newspaper stories especially since it was never proven by a live test. It's not my fault that you take this as a fact and advertise it along.
I'm not disproving the optimizations made in the C version for better chance of intercepting more maneuverable targets, I'm just going after this claim because I believe it's pointless. It's exactly like the story of the F-117 being capable of intercepting airplanes with Sidewinders. Possible? Yes, on paper. Ever going to happen? No.