Originally Posted by
YYZjim
In most countries, military assets exist to help the country's defence should it go to war. Such wars rarely start with a surprise attack. There are days, even weeks or months, of escalating tensions before armies face each other. The goal of the military is to have its assets ready, to train soldiers in their use, and to use them once hostilities actually start. Not before.
The United States is the exception. As the world's superpower, it sees a need to keep a proactive defence 24 hours of each day. It even needs to aware of the comings and goings (and communications) of its own residents. If MH370 gone missing in US airspace, it would be a wonder if the military bases within range were unresponsive.
Elsewhere in the world, though, common sense still prevails, and military assets are maintained for a state of war, not for the surveillance of civilian aircraft.
Not quite true - the UK has fighters on QRA that are quite regularly scrambled to assess civil aircraft, from hijack to commuter aircraft failing to flight plan or to navigate as expected; and of course the occasional Russian probing flights. This has been the case for decades. The Contiental US did not have any similar QRA capability until after 9/11 - a case of once bitten twice shy.