That may be the doctrine, but the practice over the last 50 years is air superiority over subsistence farmers in poor nations. Usually with NATO help. They will never go up against Russian integrated air defence because they’re not stupid. It’s more important keep the MIC scam running and have paper superiority against CIA created insurgencies and boogeymen.
I think you are too affected by the lack of appropriate targets for the USAF since Iraq in 1991 (remember that? it was a very partial deployment). The doctrine and force structure is still all there, with massive tech upgrades. The “colonial” wars since then were not what the USAF was set up to do, nor wanted to do.
As for the USAFs opinion of Russian air defenses, I dont know, and neither do you. Should it happen it is is going to be a clash of untried technologies against each other, certainly including a bunch of tricks you and I dont know about, after a long hiatus of even slightly peer-to-peer conflict. There will be surprises and doubtless much will be learned very quickly.
“That may be the doctrine, but the practice over the last 50 years is air superiority over subsistence farmers in poor nations.”
Yeah? In 1991 Iraq had the fourth largest military in the world, complete with the latest Soviet hardware (the USSR was Iraq’s closest and biggest ally).
“They will never go up against Russian integrated air defence because they’re not stupid.”
But they did, in Iraq in 1991. Those were ALL Russian systems.