Good kit doesn't come cheap. I realise that the old quote of:
"Quantity has a quality all of it's own"
is relevant here but just because we don't have hundreds of jets/ships/tanks doesn't mean we're in a terrible state. If we came up with a policy that said we wanted lots of cheap kit we could probably have it. For most conflicts that'd probably work just fine. But if the sh1t really hit the fan we'd be screwed.
I know we all yearn for the past. God knows if the Jaguar were still in service I'd jump at the chance to go back. However as the world advances we have to keep up.
We all love to hate the F35B, for example, but have any of you actually spoken to the guys flying it? It may not look as good at an airshow as other jets but then that's hardly it's primary role.
Let's not forget also that a large part of the defence budget gets eaten up by us. The people. Pay and pensions make up an enormous part of the pot of cash.
We may have cut the forces considerably since the end of the cold war but most of the people who left are still alive and still getting a pension. Maybe if we devoted a special task force to bumping some of them off we could free up some spare dosh.
BV
PS. If you can't sense the tongue in cheek tone of my last paragraph I can only apologise.