The UK government has just told the military that it will not pay to replace Britain’s aging nuclear deterrent. Instead, the military must use its own budget to pay for the upgrade. Unless the decision is rescinded, the UK military will face huge cuts—on top of the previously planned huge cuts. Alternatively, Britain could just scrap, or severely curtail, its nuclear arsenal. Which will it be?

In a break from historical precedent, UK Chancellor George Osborne said the military would need to come up with the £20 billion needed to upgrade Britain’s nuclear arsenal on its own. “All budgets have pressure,” he said, “I don’t think there’s anything particularly unique about the [military].”

Military officials, however, are warning that Britain’s defense capabilities could be severely imperiled. With the military already struggling to find mandated cost savings of 20 percent for next year’s budget, more painful cuts will be needed.

According to Telegraph sources, if military officials decide to keep the Trident missile program then the cuts could be as follows: scrapping the entire Tornado fleet, half of its Joint Strike Fighters, a full armored brigade, artillery regiments, the Nimrod MR2 anti-submarine fleet and the strategic raf Kinloss. Additionally, troops would be withdrawn from Germany and one of Britain’s two proposed new aircraft carriers canceled.

It would be a heavy toll.

Alternatively, some of those cuts could be reduced if Britain were to reduce its nuclear deterrent. The problem with this idea, however, is that Britain’s nuclear deterrent has already been pared to the bone. Four submarines carry all of Britain’s nuclear strike capability and at any one time at least one sub is in port for repairs. There is not much left to cut, if Britain wants to have a second-strike capability that would be resistant to first attack.

British historian Niall Ferguson has been very vocal warning the United States that this recession could likely lead to the loss of its military supremacy. With Britain’s economy in such poor shape, the cuts to the British military may be even more drastic.

Lord Guthrie, who served as chief of the defense staff under Tony Blair, said the cuts should come from hardware, not people. The carriers should go, he said. “The Navy needs more, smaller, ships. We have to accept that we are no longer a superpower but we can be the leader of a second tier of nations.”

As Guthrie says, Britain is already a second-rate nation. And it is rapidly becoming third rate.

For the most comprehensive read on why Britain so quickly grew to be the greatest empire in history and why it has so quickly fallen, read Herbert W. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.