So aren’t other air forces similarly aged and degraded?
I agree that the present “strategy” of a very small number of highly sophisticated weapons platforms is probably ill-advised.
“So aren’t other air forces similarly aged and degraded?”
No, in large part due to the United States obligations to sustain a global mission versus the potential adversaries having regional missions permitting concentration of forces bolstered by 3rd and 4th generation combat aircraft coming online now iand in the next decades. Just as the French Air Force of 1940 did not bring the majority of its combat air forces into the theater of the air campaign, the United States will be unlikely to have the opportunity to deploy more than a part of its most advanced combat aircraft into the theater of combat before consequences may ensue. In other words, the United States requires a larger and more capable complement of air forces, because the mission requirements are so much broader than those of most threats. U.S. failure to maintain a suitable depth of force could result in adverse battlefield results.