I know it feels good to imagine otherwise but Russia is objectively ahead (at the moment) in terms of ballistics and air defense.

But aircraft tech, yes - absolutely. The US knows how to build impressive planes. But stand-off ballistics and drones are now the better bang for the buck.

> I know it feels good to imagine otherwise but Russia is objectively ahead (at the moment) in terms of ballistics and air defense.

What do you mean “ballistics”? Ballistic missiles? If so, then, sure, Russia has much longer range conventional SRBMs than the US (though that should change this year, with the PrSM coming online), which has largely (until comparatively recently) focused on manned aircraft abd cruise rather than ballistic missiles for the same use.

> But stand-off ballistics and drones are now better bang for the buck.

In the specific tacrical environment of the Ukraine war, they may be, given the inability of either side to achieve reliable air superiority. Certainly, as terror weapons against civilian populations it is true.

More generally, that's less clear.

It's not clear Russia is better at any of that, it's that Russia has land-based launch systems they can use in the war they started, whereas the US can't easily loan Ukraine an entire sea or air-launched system (particularly because the current logic still tends towards "no weapons which could hit Moscow easily).

Ukraine is not the United States military, and is not being armed with its full complement of weapons for very specific diplomatic reasons. Whereas Russia has been free to unload all it's conventional weapons as it sees fit.