According to this article the UK's Royal Navy is slated to be without a replacement SSM to engage other naval targets in 2018 due to a lack of funds to replace it's missiles. It's current Harpoon missile inventory is slated for retirement in 2018, and currently there are no funds set aside to purchase new ones.
Now part of me thinks this isn't going to happen. A frigate or destroyer isn't going to be using it's guns to engage an enemy in this day and age. And I also don't think that the entire inventory of Harpoon's will be decommissioned in the same exact year - they don't buy them that way, plus there is always their war stockpile to drawn down. And, failing all that, there is still time to allocate funding in a budgetary cycle for replacements that could be drawn from US inventory, if not net-new builds. Harpoon's aren't terribly expensive, only $1.2million apiece.
Still, the article does bring up a good point - missiles aren't free, and military's have to pay for all the missiles in the magazines of the warships.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a23920/royal-navy-anti-ship-missiles/
Now part of me thinks this isn't going to happen. A frigate or destroyer isn't going to be using it's guns to engage an enemy in this day and age. And I also don't think that the entire inventory of Harpoon's will be decommissioned in the same exact year - they don't buy them that way, plus there is always their war stockpile to drawn down. And, failing all that, there is still time to allocate funding in a budgetary cycle for replacements that could be drawn from US inventory, if not net-new builds. Harpoon's aren't terribly expensive, only $1.2million apiece.
Still, the article does bring up a good point - missiles aren't free, and military's have to pay for all the missiles in the magazines of the warships.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a23920/royal-navy-anti-ship-missiles/