It is true that USAF / NATO has many more aircraft. So they have an advantage in aviation. Strategic aviation also has no chance for any action in Russian airspace?
AWACS is more than just a flying radar... it is airborne command and control... it is effectively their IADS.
When US led forces took down Iraq in 1990 they didn't just shoot down all their planes.... what they did was use cruise missiles and stealth bombers and even attack helicopters to hit main radar sites, HQs, command and control centres, communication centres... effectively what they did was take down there command and control and communications of their forces... they didn't need to kill their leaders and commanders... just destroy their commanders ability to communicate with their forces... essentially turning the fight into a mop up operation where each enemy unit is on its own against your entire team...
Shooting down HATOs AWACS and JSTARS planes makes the job for HATO much much harder because they will need to use their own radar to determine the air situation and they will only see what their radar can see... and also they don't have anyone at a higher level managing their moves...
AWACS was developed with an air war like that in Vietnam in mind.
AEW aircraft are old, and have evolved and developed over time. Over time features like command and control were added to improve the on the fly performance of air power.
With todays 40N6 and R-37M missiles the best way to use an AWACS is to try to guard your own airspace against an attack = defensive. Which is a loss for NATO.
Soviet and Russian development of long range weapons to defeat AWACS and JSTARS is mainly because they are so effective in coordinating and managing an attack of air power.
The value of the aircraft means that the suspicion of long range weapons designed to engage them will directly impact on their effectiveness because they will be held back more and this alone will make them less effective...
They say that Generals fight the last war but in this aspect, blinding the enemy air defences, the lesson of the Luftwaffe not destroying the UK's radar stations and airfields, has been well learnt.
Ironically it could possibly be because of western assessments of Russian air power being rather biased.... they think the MiG-29 and subsequent aircraft are mediocre, and don't really rate other aircraft very highly either.... I mean when Sweden describes a Gripen as an Su-35 killer and most western experts don't just openly laugh in their faces suggests a real lack of respect.
And their biggest problem is that Russia recognises that the west focusses on air power more than anything else... Europes primary defence from cruise missile attack is their air power... apart from new radars for Americas ABM system you really don't seem to have proper coordinated radars networked to work together...
What I think is absent in the discussion is the F-15 EX with JASSM-XR, that because of the combat radius of the carrier and the range of the weapon could target Russian sites in less forward positions.
The problem there is that F-15EX with external weapon loads is not going to be stealthy, and if F-35s can be detected and tracked then the chances of sneaky attacks by stealthy aircraft and weapons when the aircraft are not actually stealthy becomes interesting. Russian air defences are layered so to reach targets behind the front line they will have to pass over multiple areas defended by various systems... the IADS will detect such an attack relatively early and while it might not be clear as to the actual target the weapons are trying to reach... every little bubble these weapons pass over will be a chance for interception and for rather long range missiles like JASSM-XR you would probably have the time to launch interceptor aircraft to shoot it down with an R-73...
The E-3 AWACS can also be Refueled in Flight:
Refuelling aircraft will be as high a priority as AWACS aircraft and JSTARs... they will likely be either shot down or withdrawn too...
They would be used closer to/over enemy territory only after massive missile strikes to degrade the IAD & destroy airfields, to help achieve air superiority & clean the skies of any remaining defending fighters.
As the Serbs showed in the conflict in Kosovo... even with air domination... which they are not likely to get with Russia... even after a month of hitting target after target... or should I say decoy after target... the Serbian air defence was still a real threat without having the mobile systems modern Russia has that makes them rather more of a danger.... in fact I would say that even if you grounded every Russian aircraft HATO still couldn't operate over Russia because the air defence would be too strong.