HH,
As I am sure you are aware, huge effort goes into the assessment of threats to the UK and our assets. Obviously, the government make the decisions on spending plans and those political decisions form part of the type of policy that the population vote on. In the past, when the UK was less wealthy, poor Military spending plans have seriously damaged the fortunes of political parties and I think similar circumstances might prevail again.
It might be realistic to say that the service chiefs would argue, however big the Defence budget was made, but if spending is tight it becomes even more important that the spending is targeted on the most important capabilities. My opinion is that the QE class project is an extremely poorly targeted capability for the UK.
OAP