Most of our airframes are twice as old as their pilots and the dies have been destroyed. What will replace them? A hundred F22s? China will not be impressed.
China would not be impressed. They would no longer exist if they attack us. The F-22s are in the process of being fielded. The JSF is coming soon. Just one nuclear submarine carries more nukes than China's entire arsenal combined. They are no match for us.
...and we haven't built any new nukes for over a decade.
If an immediate offensive weapon is needed against Russia or China, we will use nuclear missiles.
If more time is available we will build more of the then latest aircraft. (which could be robotic)
If offensive weapons are needed against lesser powers, 100 planes are plenty for a flexible strategy.
In peace 100 planes are enough to prove the technology.
Bottom line: There is no point in having thousands of expensive planes sitting around getting obsolete.
Have you heard of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, made in American by Lockheed Martin? Our weapons systems have actually become much more powerful in the last 20 years because of precision guidance of bombs, artillery shells, tank shells, etc., and because of new weapons such as electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) bombs, which can disable all the electronic components in the enemy's weapons and infrastructure. It might help you to do some more reading here at FR and elsewhere on the web. News releases from defense contractors have a lot of good information about the capabilities of our weapons systems.