Well this is what happens when you have a corrupt govt more interested in lining their own pockets than the running of a supposed 1st world nation.

Our country is all but broke, we have no empire to sell off, we have very little gold to sell off, with have very little govt infrastructure to sell off.

Will the last person in blighty please turn out the lights, maybe before the power grid fails through lack of investment.

I've just had a brilliant idea!

How about we Brits pull out of the JSF?

If we were to do that, we could upgrade the Harrier fleet, give them a second engine, bigger fuselarge, bigger wings.

We could also upgrade the avionics, nav and weapon packs and that should see us through to the mid 50's.

Other than that, we could purchase Rafael or Hornets. Both are off the shelf and both proven.

That way we could keep our second carrier, create lots of jobs and get the Royal Navy back to sea!

We are going to see more and more of this in allied countries not just the UK. Having a powerful military is getting more and more expensive and at the same time countries are realizing that buying these weapons is lining the pockets of the military industrial complex. So they see in a sense that not purchasing and playing into the game they are actually serving there self interests better. Also i foresee a lot more reliance on the US military as a loaner. Who knows this could be a good thing, maybe not.

Only time will tell i suppose. Cheers.