David Axe over at War is Boring Blog does the ELP bit but instead of the Navy crunches the numbers with regard to US Air Power. You can read it here, but again he buried the lead. Check this out....
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ huge air wings help explain the imbalance. The U.S. Air Force possesses 1,959 fighters and all of America’s bombers. Alone, the American flying branch’s warplanes outnumber China’s and Russia’s—but only by a few hundred airframes.The numbers don't tell the story. I talk about the Pacific often. The reason? I believe that to be the area where you'll see peer opponents going at it. Whether its the China vs. the US, China vs. Japan, China vs. S. Korea etc...
But the U.S. Navy and Marines together maintain 1,402 fighters, while China’s navy fields fewer than 200 fighters—and the Russian navy fewer than 100.
In that calculation overall numbers mean squat. What means everything is the number of fighters that can respond to a rapidly developing incident.
Regional or even local air superiority is what counts.
The same applies to troops, tanks, ships, UAVs etc....
Don't be fooled by the numbers. Worldwide obligations/responsibilities make our air power lead dubious at best.
