There is a slowly developing sound of a penny dropping among the paper reading British peoples that something is not right with the UK military. The Daily Mail has consistently ran a story for weeks about the alleged failings of the Type 45 class languishing in Portsmouth, and the new carrier build problem is well known.
Other failings are equally pounced upon by the press and I think overall the perception is not that good..
But are the British even sure about what they want their military to do anymore? Protect them, yes, but how?
Expeditionary ground warfare- no.
Border control to dispel (by force) unarmed illegal immigrants? Probably. Air Defence from unknown unspoken half guessed threats? Yes, this has massive resonance still, especially bombing raids/air attack as history shows us.
My two cents? We will eventually leave NATO anyway, after a major falling out with our European allies triggered by money which was originally triggered by BREXIT. I'm serious - I've said this before, we will eventually leave them to it. We will eventually build a high level layered air defence system and smarter future air weapons system at the total expense of our land army. In fact the RN and RAF will be possibly an amalgamation to do just that, with very little traditional Army left at all to fight anywhere, least of all Russia in mainland Europe. We will keep a future ICBM system as "an insurance" at massive expense , so its likely if they do attack anyway and succeed its just about 50/50 we are straight to nuclear weaponry anyway. As I said, my two cents. And I probably gave more thought to this highly debateable strategy/ musing in 20 minutes than Dave C. gave in 5 years as PM. Goodnight.