Well if this tactical situation goes like others have recently, it will more probably be a weird, cheap-ass, out-of-the-box attack that will dominate AWACS like roadside IEDs dominated Hum-vees. I don't know what that will be, but some possibilities are: network or systems hacks, airborne debris dispersal, swarm of cheap drones released inside the fighter shell, etc. The concept of a fighter escort perimeter reminds me of the firewall on a network boundary. That's not defense-in-depth, and by itself it doesn't work too well anymore.

Sure the space-borne laser or railgun is fun, but it's probably not the first thing that the Taliban or their equivalent will attempt. Unless they can find a way to hijack one that we've conveniently installed for them.