in the days of old, when we could produce new aircraft faster than they could be shot down, the combat attrition argument may have held water. But that's not the case anymore. Our Air Force is now a come as you are Air Force. The aircraft you have at the start of the war are it, there will be no time to replace aircraft that are lost. Even units that are slightly understaffed have more pilots than aircraft. So in fact, for every combat loss, your staffing of pilots per aircraft goes up.

Sorry, but I think the idea of needing to overstaff in case of combat attrition is outdated at best.