The reality is that the teeth arms only come across air power when it is in support of them
That is true, but irrelevant. Obviously they only come across it when they are deployed in the same theatre, that does not mean that air power is
not deployed, just that they are not present.
I have a paper I used in my last Uni paper on warfare which has a map which shows the 20+ drone sites the US (not USAF) has deployed throughout Africa supported by civil company recce business jets (surprising resembling those used by the UK and others) and conducting armed operations in support of their host nations. I would imagine the same is true in Asia.