Russia does NOT have a “fleet” of modern generation aircraft.
They have very few 5th generation aircraft. The majority of their equipment is dated and old and they rely on export markets far more than we do. To further complicate matters, their training, tactics, and maintenance suck.
Trading a 4 million dollar missile for a 40 million dollar aircraft or a 12 million dollar helicopter is not a winning formula for them any more than using a million dollar bomb to destroy a 20k bridge that we paid contractors 10 million to rebuild was a winning formula for us in Iraq.
It did make a lot of elites wealthy though.....
The West will have a shortage of missiles for sure, but its far easier to build a missile than a jet or helicopter.
To repeat, my sarcasm was maybe too subtle.
Your point about the money involved is more valid than simply comparing dollar for dollar. NATO countries together have 10 times the GDP of Russia. So, NATO can much more easily absorb the cost of the war.
(Yes, we’d like Europe to pick up its share of the cost.)
+1