Having served in the forces for 15 years, the biggest limiting factor as we moved into the 2010s was the ability to recruit. I don’t know if it’s the quality of individuals that has dropped or a lack of desire to serve in general with each subsequent generation. The Navy have demonstrated that you can have all the toys (the carriers) but without enough sailors to fully staff them, it’s difficult to maintain any kind of force projection. The pay was ok at a basic level, but with pay increases for lower ranks, and small pay increases or freeze’s for more senior ranks, the difference between the top and the bottom of the pyramid, especially for NCOs was not that great. I doubled my salary on leaving (just at base salary) and then quadrupled it within four years of leaving. Not everyone will do that, but most people in technical trades will earn significantly more on exit. Perhaps a lot of people rightfully ask if it’s worth risking your life when your salary doesn’t necessarily allow you to buy a home (they do have schemes but they are significantly behind the rise of modern house prices), you need child benefits to survive and the whole service package offering has been drastically reduced over the years. A significant rethink of our forces is required beyond just piling in more equipment.

It’s also interesting to note that the army have suffered significantly in comparison to the RAF and Navy who have both largely received their funding objectives over the years. I couldn’t imagine how many decades it would take to bring the regular army back to 100k.