One of the main problems the British Government has is short-sightedness. Ever since the Berlin wall come down, we've convinced ourselves that the world is suddenly a much safer place and we don't need large standing armies, or a powerful Navy or Air force, if we can cut corners by sending our troops to places with inadequate provisions, well they can improvise, and so what if our fleet air arm hasn't got any adequate Anti-air fighters, we're not fighting the Cold War anymore, we don't need them.
And then we suddenly find ourselves out-manuevered by an enemy we'd thought below us, and suddenly we're running to catch up, having cut our forces too small and spreading them out too wide.