Reality Check.

Lofty equipment aspirations and base financial reality will confront some of Europe's main defense players with critical choices over the coming months. Following in the wake of Germany's budgetary woes, Great Britain and Italy are now struggling with defense-expenditure dilemmas. Rome is being forced to curtail and delay acquisition programs, while in London, England, the ministry is grappling with both short-and long-term financial difficulties. In Great Britain, the government is trying to paper over a short-term defense funding problem, while the Defense Ministry faces considerable difficulty resolving a mismatch between available resources and requirements in its medium-to-long-term equipment program.