Irrespective of the party in power there will always be cuts to the service and equipment people want or desire.........BUT remember that real expenditure rises, its just you get less for it.
In an ideal world everybody would all get what they want BUT that cannot happen because the consequences would be to shut down NHS and lots of other services for the people who actually pay the taxes for the equipment to be bought.
It would be great having lots of equipment ready for a war while the homefront collapses as there is nothing there for people and they are starved of services, equipment might end up being used for war alright but at home as people demand more.
The benefit of a recession is that you will get more volunteers and also people who were due to leave will stay on given that no one really wants to exit when 3 million people are unemployed unless they have a reasonable guarantee of an income.
Governments fortunately have to compromise on what is best for everyone but if you equip a military with everything it wants the danger from history is that it decides it needs to use it to gain more resources and power.