I remember being told, on first joining up, that we train the man ('twas in the days when the WRAF and WRAC still existed) and the assumption was that the better-trained man would beat the less competent with the better kit.
Unfortunately, better-trained men (and women) are 'awkward'. Their abilities can't be readily articulated in a press release and don't they generate the good photo opportunities which ministers love. The Forces Covenant, meanwhile, is see-through when held up to the light.
More and more, defence policy is looking like a Bird and Fortune sketch on being seen to be doing, rather than actually doing. The parodies just aren't funny any more.