I dunno.Fisherking is right in that we reduced the army in size, but at the same time the attempt is to make it more mobile for outside engagements and international missions. If you want to have 5000 tanks and then move them all to Afghanistan, you have to invest a lot into transports. Or you reduce the number of tanks and buy transports for the money you save.

On the other hand, not every currently available technology is really suited for that. Our Tiger helicopter was designed purely with anti-tank operations in mind and does not have a rotating gun as a result. I don't know why we didn't order some of the french versions once we found out that was a silly idea but I guess such things cannot be changed so easily.

We also didn't participate in Libya, something a lot of people saw as a mistake. I could laugh though when France and the UK ran out of laser guided bombs and had to get the US involved. It's funny because they are both quite more militarily engaged than we are, or so I thought. I know the UK has been downsizing the navy for a while but that both together would run out of LGBs....I digress...

So what's the verdict on Austria and Italy? Do they just always get away easy because they never really had a capable military?