1. Why our surveillance aircraft do not fly routinely with a fighter escort?
2. Why the E3 that was forced down by the Chinese did not have a 'destruct' button which would destroy all sensitive equipment and data?
3. If the E3 did have such a system, why the mission commander did not use it?
--Boris
1. Why our surveillance aircraft do not fly routinely with a fighter escort?
Three reasons. One, is that the long range recon planes would outdistance short range fighters. Two, the fuel for the fighters would be very expensive. Three, in peacetime, there should be no need for either one or two at all, because all these planes operate in international waters / airspace. (Granted, the situation in North Korea will soon rate fighter escorts. I personally think it does now.)
2. Why the E3 that was forced down by the Chinese did not have a 'destruct' button which would destroy all sensitive equipment and data?
Because anything that the military makes is bound to not work at least once a year. A faulty self destruct system or accident could blow hundreds of millions of dollars and a dozen highly skilled operators out of the sky for no reason, and we'd have no way of knowing that they weren't shot down.
3. If the E3 did have such a system, why the mission commander did not use it?</>
They wouldn't need to, even if they did. Once the encryption is zeroed (which takes a few seconds) , the remaining stuff is on the whole nothing you couldn't buy off the shelf (in China, for that matter). We used to help Soviet planes that landed in Alaska in trouble, and sent them on their way. We had no reason to think that China would send our plan back UPS, after tearing it apart.