If its any consolations, for those of a dismal state of mind. While we may be concerned, and should be, things are also gloomy with the neighbours.
It is also interesting that Britain is one of the few of the 28 NATO members who is actually spending the approximately 2% of GDP on defence that all members agreed would be a minimum, and, is considered to punch above its weight in terms of effectiveness for the numbers in service.
The US spends considerably more, others very much less.
Here's who is paying the agreed-upon share to NATO — and who isn’t.
Only 5 of 28 NATO countries are paying agreed-upon amount on defense - Business Insider
Canada for example less than 1%. Some like Greece spend more than the UK but seem to actually do very little in terms of NATO commitment. Turkey has at time been a somewhat difficult... partner?
Germany the most powerful member of the EU?? The Deutsche Marine has has been having severe problems with its Type 212A submarines. Advanced extremely quiet air independent diesel electrics and a vital NATO element in the Baltic they have become extremely unreliable because the Navy ordered only limited stocks of critical spare parts up front, and now has to order parts for every major repair, which has proven to be an expensive and time consuming process.
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Budgetary and logistical constraints mean that it’s not clear when Germany will have all six operational with German shipyards unable to perform necessary work on all of the Type 212As at once, further slowing the repair cycle. In addition to that with only three fully trained crews and no submarines to keep skills up in December 2017 Hans-Peter Bartels Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces in Germany believed it was the “first time in history” that all of the service’s submarines would “have nothing to do for months.”
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel from the SPD earlier this year declared any increase in defense spending should be focused entirely on humanitarian efforts. This reflected by German Navy’s latest Baden-Wurttemberg-class “frigate,” with a displacement close to a destroyer, but little in the way of firepower and almost exclusively focused on low-threat missions like counter-piracy and humanitarian relief.
We, thank the good Lord, still appear to have a professional highly trained blue water Navy operating around the globe.