UK to buy full allotment of F-35's? Ok then everything else will be slashed...

There are plenty of articles that have as their lead that the UK will buy its full allotment of F-35 fighters.

Ok.  I won't touch that debate (not this time).  What I will touch on is the real headline that everyone missed. From Forces.net.

Last Friday, the Public Accounts Committee warned that in a worst-case scenario, the UK armed forces could be £21 billion short of the money needed to buy equipment over the next decade. 

MPs warned the Government that the department "simply does not have enough money to buy all the equipment it needs".

For the UK the F-35 debate has become secondary.

Quite honestly the new debate becomes the future of their military.  Are they willing to fund one or will they take a step where the separate services become one and they're down to one tank, one airplane and a Royal Marine with a big shiny fighting knife instead of a rifle.

Make no mistake.

This is turning into a pick one debate for the UK.  The F-35 has trashed the USMC's budget but done worse to the UK's. 

Planes or a military.

Pick one but you can't have both.  God save the Brits cause they're fucked.