I have to agree with everyone here. The VHF takes ages to beat a well flown bomber all the time constantly risking the one SNAC hit. The bombers can afford putting on an all deb load out so they'll drain the shields of the VHF even with spraying and praying. And if you are in a VHF we you lose shields you go evasive and meanwhile letting the bomber regen it's shields.
The only solution for a VHF to have a reasonable chance to be effective and make sense in it's role to take on bombers now is to pack missiles; More than one kind.
Tenacity's idea is interesting, but would require a redo of all of the bombers. As meanwhile solution I put forward slowing the thruster speed of bombers to 175, reducing strafe a bit and making them turn a bit slower. That would even the field IMO somewhat.