Fighter pilots are cool and all, but to really provide a game-changing aircraft, they need an E-3 AWACS helping.
Air doctrine says you can add more fighter aircraft to better the odds, but the increase in advantage has a 1:1 ratio numerically, and maybe as much as a 2:1 advantage if the opponent's pilots and aircraft are less capable.
Placing 2-3 AWACS on station, however, is called a force multiplier. A flight of 3 fighters would have the operational capability of about 12 aircraft or more. Not only does their over the horizon view increase ground radar unit's ability to see the entire operating area for miles, but the fighters have someone else watching the skies and giving them threat analysis, intercept vectors, and so forth.
The cherry on the cake is the E-3's ability to identify and pinpoint enemy air defenses. They can jam missile sites so they can't see our planes approaching. They can also work together to triangulate the exact position of an enemy jammer or air defense site, the location of which can be passed on to air support so they can take out those defenses. A single AWACS will only know a jammer or targeting radar is in range and its general direction. Two AWACS create a triangular picture with the E-3s and the jammer/radar as the 3 corners -- hence triangulation.
As for radar capabilities, the distance the platform can see is classified, but in the 1980s, an AWACS stationed above the middle of Oklahoma would be able to provide air traffic control for all the airports up to and beyond the Dallas-Forth Worth area.