BigMike,
Why crush the airframes? Same reason the Canadians were forced to destroy every last vestige of the CF105 and the Brits the TSR2; in a word, POLITICS! This cuts both inside and outside the military. Those who's projects have now been funded by money cut from the Commanche programme have a vested interest in making sure a future administration doesn't reverse the decision-if partially complete airframes were available this would be far easier. Polticians also demand blood when they win, for the reason that they don't want to be embarressed if they find themselves in opposition and the new regime funds the programme and it's a runaway success. At the other end of the scale, storing partially completed (classified?) aircraft is not a cheap business. It's a crying shame that the Commanche got cut, but I can see the rationale-for this war. Not so sure about trying to sneak up to a SA15 or 2S6/SA19 in an Apache in the next one though.....