I just had a funny thought. While watching the episode again, it occured to me that perhaps the reason for shooting the Alto's gunpod was that they were located underneath the ships reactor, fold thing whatever. I think the dude in the Vf-27 didn't want the ship to go boom with him on it. Just a thought anyway. A theory based on a subbed version I saw.
Reading up on the thread and watching Macross plus again, perhaps its another fighter challenge in which the NUNS fighter is being compared to the SMS private fighter. However if true the 27 beats the 25 hands down.