Just to throw my 2d in.
The pubic sector - especially the Military, Police & Health - are frequently deluded by the 'Snake Oil' Salesmen of technology.
By that I mean the propensity to be hypnotised when the newest shiny bit of kit is flashed around accompanied with the sales pitch of "This new shiny thing will make everything all right".
Of course every new shiny thing will be twice as good as the thing it is to replace; needs a fraction of the maintenance; has treble to killing power; can track five times the number of targets at six times the range; puts no aircrew over foreign soil (and therefore no MiA / KiA) & can be run from a caravan in Nevada et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
It's no wonder that the Poli's and Serpents who we have just twirled into paying for the new shiny things start to work out that one Airman can now fight a war over 5 Million square miles of battlespace from their iPod - and hence demand reductions.
I still get oddly nostalgic when remembering the Red Army and it's "Brutal & Basic" approach to warfighting. Sometimes technological advancement is not completely a Utopian dream in itself.
As a country we are financially sodomised.
The Realpolitik is that the Government cannot afford anything and is frightened to hell of the IMF foreclosing on us once again and needs to cut.
I know from my own optional appraisals that every option needs to be considered - if only to be able to rule it out in favour of an alternative, so the 'stalking horse' of these worst case scenarios can be placed into context like that.
I foresee however that the only credible way to save mega bucks whilst keeping an effective warfighting function is to go for a USMC / HM Defence Force management structure and save a heap of stars and support infrastructure.
General, Air & Flag ranks plus their senior middle management voting for reductions? Stuff that - let's screw the private soldiers / sailors & airmen.