It appears that HMS Ark Royal is to be scrapped; the much-needed upgrade to Trident is to be postponed for a few years; and our shiny new £5billion aircraft carriers are to have no aircrafts... Well, we're in dire economic straits and cuts are needed across the board.
But in the defence of the realm?
The Ark Royal is getting on a bit: a quarter of a century of loyal service is enough for any piece of hardware. Re-fits (she's had three) just cost too much - the last was £18million. So that's a saving straightaway.
The five-year delay in Trident will save a whopping £750million. It is perhaps a fair gamble that we will not need to launch a nuclear strike before the next general election. And it's also a fair bet that submarines patrolling the murky depths are unlikely to deter Al-Qaeda or the 'Real IRA' from their favourite pastime.
But His Grace is genuinely puzzled by the two new aircraft carriers which will now go to sea for a few years without any aircraft, and then be mothballed. What is the point of that? What would Ark Royal have been without her Sea Harrier fighters and Harrier GR7 strike jets? How can they possibly defend this waste of £5,000,000,000 of taxpayers' money?
Don't they realise how much that is? How many hospitals? Schools? Nurses? Teachers? What pension increase? What tax cuts?
Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "It is not unprecedented not to have jets on our carriers."
Maybe not, but it is a bit barking.
Sir Walter Raleigh would never have put his Ark Royal to sea without the requisite ordnance on her gun decks. The Spanish Armada would hardly have been deterred if he had done so.
Apparently, the new National Security Strategy has identified the most pressing risks to UK security are not linked to invasion, but to cyber-terrorism.
In which case, let's pour the defence budget into malware detection and virus control.
Good grief. Have the Conservative Party learned nothing from Churchill? The enemy takes you by surprise: they plan and strategise; scheme and deceive. They sign treaties and give you their word. And then...
This particular cut to the RAF means that the UK will not have the ability to launch fighter jets at sea until about 2019.
This is a good time for Argentina to launch another offensive against the Falklands.
Whatever the 'budgetary hangover' bequeathed by Labour, whatever cutbacks and cuts are necessary, it is a dangerous game indeed to economise on national defence.
And it is crass to suggest that such cuts do not affect the UK's capabilities or somehow make us weaker.
