But we're not comparing navies. Something like a Navy has an extraordinarily high up-front cost before you get any value at all from it. People-focused forces

But we're not comparing navies. Something like a Navy has an extraordinarily high up-front cost before you get any value at all from it. People-focused forces (such as the police or an army) don't have the same issue. Nor do technologies that are relatively cheap, such as the kind of computer hardware that would help a state surveil its own networks. If anything, America is slipping compared to the rest of the world with regard to the quality of their computer programmers and other computer-focused developers. Even countries like Estonia could certainly find someone to help them develop competent surveillance if necessary. The only limitation is that they'd probably not be able to attack the underpinnings of cryptology the way the NSA probably can, but we as computer professionals already know that usually the crypto is not the problem, it's the people or the implementation that is, and both of those are within reach of the Estonia state, if they really wish.