Ah didnae ken

I learned something new today, courtesy of Jane's Industry Quarterly. The UK has a bigger defence budget than any other country in the world, with the sole exception of the USA. Here are the figures:

(2008) USD Billion

1 United States 696.30
2 United Kingdom 79.27
3 France 65.74
4 China 58.07
5 Japan 48.10
6 Germany 43.55
7 Saudi Arabia 38.32
8 Russian Federation 36.73
9 Italy 31.40
10 Korea, South 28.30

Unbelievable. But Jane is widely regarded as knowing its stuff.

You may wonder why we are spending so much more than those belligerent states such as China or Russia, with so little to show for it (at least in terms of adequate equipment for the troops in Afghanistan). But remember these figures the next time the Ministry of Defence chiefs start moaning about the next defence review. (Unlike Edinburgh Corporation buses, defence reviews appear relatively frequently.)

Ask yourself - do we really need a replacement for Trident? or those two dirty great aircraft carriers (even although they may guarantee 10,000 jobs at the dockyards for a while)? or those 272 Eurofighters (when we have less than 100 aircrews capable of flying them)?

We are a peace-loving nation, are we not?