Stonca,
Ah 'Airbase'...'never in the history of entertainment was so much filming done by so many for such a pants result!'
Yes we're important and yes we'd love to have self protection. Bear in mind however that the E-3D was procured in the Cold War as an AD platform. It was never envisaged that it would be employed in the roles it is now, and certainly not this close to the bad guys. Therefore it takes a while for funding and procurement to get around to giving us decent self protection systems. There are certainly more pressing priorities for the development of the E-3D right now. However, it's nice to see that both ASTOR and the MRA4 will have an excellent self defence suite.
Secondly, no it would definately not be a good idea to put BVR missiles on an E-3D!! Lets give our picture to the fighter jocks and let them take the shots. Unless somebody develops an AAM with a range of 100nm+, I do not wish to be going head to head with a kebab eating bad guy! In a perfect world, it would be nice to have a couple of AMRAAMs strapped under the wings (ala Nimrod/AIM-9) for last ditch self defence. But we do not live in a perfect world (in terms of funding) and again, there are MUCH better things that we could spend our dosh on!
Good luck at Uni and in joining the RAF.
Regards
M2