Since the end of the Cold War, each succeeding government administration in the United Kingdom has downsized the military. The Royal Air Force plummeted from roughly 30 front-line squadrons down to just seven. Today, the military simply does not have the assets to sustain a large air corps. Even after pilots are fully trained, the combination of poor military housing, intense deployment cycles, and airline poaching makes staying in the RAF hard to justify for many. Making it even harder for the UK to keep its fighter jets flying, private carriers like Virgin Atlantic have been 'headhunting' pilots from the…