Public spending always has competing demands, and there are understandable reasons to give other services priority over weapons. The difficulty is that weapons take time to manufacture. A crisis can create an urgent requirement with very little warning. Defence spending is therefore presented as an insurance premium paid in advance to protect the other things a society values.
Notable Point · 1:19:58-1:20:19
Why weapons procurement has to precede a crisis
Long production times explain the argument for maintaining military capability before an emergency makes it necessary.