Remember it is the only homing missile so far - the guidance precision is as high at long range as the lesser missiles can attain at their optimal short range.

If guidance is lost the missile will fly wide, but a good track should result in a close pass. The missile will fail to guide if the target return signal is lost, or if the gimbal or gimbal-rate limits are reached during the lead turns, other wise cross track error reduces with proximity to the target due to attempting to maintain a pseudo-constant lead angle relative to the missile/target LOS.

The command guidance gives increasing lateral error with range for a given lead angle.