When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object bad things usually happen. And so it will be next year when spending cuts imposed by the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression meet the rising demands of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The UK government may have to cut non-defence programmes, like education or housing, to keep military spending at current levels (as James Blitz argues). Alternatively, the Ministry of Defence can cannibalise planned weapons buys, like the F-35 fighter aircraft or the Trident submarines, to pay for the cost of wars (as Max Hastings recommends).

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Common sense argues that the outcome will be a combination of both. There is no clever third way that would generate the sort of savings that the government needs in order to restore order in its budgets. But there are at least two additional ways to reduce defence spending – not of the magnitude that would save the government from its current predicament but important nevertheless. In the future, more so than in the past, every penny will count.