Originally Posted by
Cathay Boy
The fighters are there to shoot it down should the need arises. There's no need for a missle to shoot down a plane. Machine gun fire from the fighter will more than be enough to shoot down the commercial airliner.
Maybe you shouldn't comment on something that you have no knowledge of.
They use missles "to shoot it down". Missles are used because (a) It is easy; and (b) It does the job immediately. They don't want to just "shoot it down" - they want to blow it up and destroy it immediately.
Firing a "machine gun", or whatever, is generally an inefficient way to shoot down a large object, as it is likely to continue on at an unknown trajectory. From a strategic viewpoint, it is the optimal outcome is use missles to blow it up.
But, as QRC has said, the fighters are there for many other things in the first place.