You actually all seem suprised by this development.
The present Govt. and the one before have set it out for years. They want much smaller traditional forces and they are removing them rapidly.
And they want more controllable aggressive spies for want of a better phrase, larger Special Forces, expeditionary warfare aerial drones with a trans global range (for assassination missions), cyber warfare capability (fantastic catch all phrase) 2 x carriers (which already are looking like white elephants now-a mistake but one they are pressing on with), an ICBM submarine force (God knows why=political and no one dare cancel it), lighter adaptable mobile forces for brushfire wars and rapid response- you've seen the buzz words and phrases.
Drones are getting smaller and better at a frightening pace and their use will increase-spying/assassination tools is how they are used and all they are there for. I see weapons being smaller and smarter and deadlier and stand off.
Tanks, Tornadoes all that dated heavy metal stuff is dated and going, going gone, get used to it. Tornadoes have been around for 35 years, past it and on their way out. The threat they were designed for=long gone.
Forces tailored for the 2030s 40s and 50s will face different counter threats and have different tasks and those decades will be will be dominated by Asian and Islamic countries anyway- bet on it. We have to fit in and around them, a difficult task, but one we will have to swallow hard and master.
Anyway whose left that you want to fight in the old fashioned way? Has anybody on Prune been to London lately because its now like a foreign city, with the expensive real estate being snapped up by wealthy foreigners, but a city largely manned in the service sector by poor foreigners-this is not a quirky accident. Banks and businesses are very largely foreign owned now in the UK.Try to imagine what the future world will look and be like. The future forces are going to be nothing at all like the ones you grew up with.
To me the UK forces look more and more less like a force designed to defend a nation or nation hood but one designed more to link with others to protect big business and vested world business interests.
See recent military activity of the RAF officers embedded with the US forces be they bombing from carriers or operating drones from Nevada or Timbuktu. They seem almost beyond Parliament authority - that's the future.
We are going to be more stiletto than broadsword in the future.
The future miltary is going to be nothing at all like the even recent past.