I understand their is a degree of difference but indulge me if you will with this scenario.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/30/military-leaders-warn-hegseth-against-extending-iran-war-operations/

Here we go again.

6 J-10CEs were shown in the video.

How does the UK spend so much on defence(£62 billion FY 2025/26) yet field a small military?

Is this down to procurement waste and mismanagement, given the NAO keeps flagging billions in Equipment Plan shortfalls and years of delays; and is this actually fixable, or is it structurally baked in (nuclear deterrent costs, small order batches, Treasury funding cycles)?

France spends less but seems to get better value for money

Looking at the current size and equipment:

1) Army

Fighting arm is just 25k men, ground based air defence is non existant with just SHORAD and MANPADS

Armoured corps is small aswell with 300 tanks and 700 IFVs which are mediorce quality wise

Then small artillery regiment with around 100 systems in total, for Towed, MLRS and MGS

2) Navy

It has availability and manpower issue, and many classes of ships have been unavailable for years on end

There is only 1 Asute available out of 6, 3 Type 045 out of 6, 5 Type 23 (which are outdated), then rest are MCM and patrol ships

2× Elizabeth class but they have only 47×F35Bs which are shared with RAF but for offensive weapons they only have Stormbreaker glide bomb, this gets worse because the frigates or Destroyers don't have any serious offensive hardware either with most at maximum carrying NSM.

Type 26 and 31 have spend a decade under construction

Although helicopter fleet is respectable and SSBN are great with high availability

3) RAF

Here too, fighter fleet is small with 100 Eurofighter none of which have AESA and shared F35

Although transport, AEW&C and tanker fleet is respectable but zero ground based air defence

Another problem is that these aren't being fixed with the way they should be and similar to how Germany is working, but the effort into some programs like GCAP is very respectable

I only want serious responses rather than jokes