Some want to rebuild the UK Armed Forces to look like the USMC! Things are bad for UK Defence...

via The Guardian.

With no cultural or historic ties, an off-the-shelf armed forces might even resemble the US Marine Corps (USMC), a force that is almost eerily similar in size to the UK Armed Forces: both have about 400 tanks (though many of the UK’s are in storage), 1,200 aircraft, and are about 230,000 personnel strong (including reserves). The USMC operates on a budget of just $40bn compared to $50bn for the UK, far more expensive even when the more than $2bn annual cost of Trident is taken into consideration.

With a fresh look at the country’s requirements and commitments, the UK could focus on certain key roles where it can best support Nato and European allies. Historically the UK has excelled in areas such as maritime strike, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), air defence, and airlift, as well as intervention through special operations or amphibious and airborne rapid reaction forces. During the cold war, the Royal Navy was highly specialised in chasing Russian submarines around the North Atlantic, while the RAF played a major role intercepting the Soviet aircraft that would regularly test the alliance’s airspace.

Story here. 

Believe it or not that blurb about starting with a blank sheet and rebuilding the UK Armed Forces and them making it to look like the USMC was the most optimistic part of this article that I could find.

Things are looking bad for UK Defense.  Correction.  Things are looking horrible.