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[[Image:Military expenditure percent of GDP.svg|thumb|350px|Military spending as a percentage of [[GDP]]]]
[[Image:Military expenditure percent of GDP.svg|thumb|350px|Military spending as a percentage of [[GDP]]]]


The 2009 U.S. military budget is almost as much as the rest of the world's defense spending combined and is over nine times larger than the [[Military budget of the People's Republic of China|military budget of China]] (compared at the [[Real versus nominal value|nominal]] [[US dollar]] / [[Renminbi]] rate, not the [[purchasing power parity|PPP]] rate). The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's [[List of countries by military expenditures|military spending]] (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority)<ref>[http://www.19.org/index.php?aid=312 ''World Military Spending'', Anup Shah]</ref>. China's reported defense spending is, however, a matter of debate as the PRC official numbers are often underreported.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} Additionally, the Chinese defense establishment owns and operates companies within China and uses profits as well as the companies themselves to invest in defense research and production.
The 2009 U.S. military budget is almost as much as the rest of the world's defense spending combined and is over nine times larger than the [[Military budget of the People's Republic of China|military budget of China]] (compared at the [[Real versus nominal value|nominal]] [[US dollar]] / [[Renminbi]] rate, not the [[purchasing power parity|PPP]] rate). The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's [[List of countries by military expenditures|military spending]] (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority)<ref>[http://www.19.org/index.php?aid=312 ''World Military Spending'', Anup Shah]</ref><ref name= Facts>{{Cite web
| title = World Wide Military Expenditures
| publisher = GlobalSecurity.org
| date = 2006
| url = http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm
| accessdate = May 10th 2010}}</ref>
. China's reported defense spending is, however, a matter of debate as the PRC official numbers are often underreported.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} Additionally, the Chinese defense establishment owns and operates companies within China and uses profits as well as the companies themselves to invest in defense research and production.


In 2005, the United States spent 4.06% of its [[GDP]] on its military (considering only basic Department of Defense budget spending), more than France's 2.6% and less than [[Saudi Arabia]]'s 10%.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[CIA World Factbook]]|title=Rank Order &ndash; Military expenditures percent of GDP|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html|accessdate=2006-05-26}}</ref> This is historically low for the United States since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP (it reached the lowest point of 3.0% in 1999&ndash;2001). Even during the peak of the [[Vietnam War]] the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968.<ref name="tp">{{cite web | publisher=[http://www.truthandpolitics.org/ TruthAndPolitics.org]|title=Relative Size of US Military Spending from 1940 to 2003|url=http://www.truthandpolitics.org/military-relative-size.php}}</ref>
In 2005, the United States spent 4.06% of its [[GDP]] on its military (considering only basic Department of Defense budget spending), more than France's 2.6% and less than [[Saudi Arabia]]'s 10%.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[CIA World Factbook]]|title=Rank Order &ndash; Military expenditures percent of GDP|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html|accessdate=2006-05-26}}</ref> This is historically low for the United States since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP (it reached the lowest point of 3.0% in 1999&ndash;2001). Even during the peak of the [[Vietnam War]] the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968.<ref name="tp">{{cite web | publisher=[http://www.truthandpolitics.org/ TruthAndPolitics.org]|title=Relative Size of US Military Spending from 1940 to 2003|url=http://www.truthandpolitics.org/military-relative-size.php}}</ref>

Revision as of 08:11, 10 May 2010

This article is part of a series on the
Budget and debt in the
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Major dimensions
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Terminology
Cumulative deficit + Interest ≈ Debt

The military budget is that portion of the United States discretionary federal budget that is allocated to the Department of Defense, or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any defense-related expenditures. This military budget pays the salaries, training, and health care of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new equipment. The budget funds all branches of the U.S. military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

Budget for 2010

For the 2010 fiscal year, the president's base budget of the Department of Defense rose to $533.8 billion. Adding spending on "overseas contingency operations" brings the sum to $663.8 billion.[1][2]

When the budget was signed into law on October 28, 2009, the final size of the Department of Defense's budget was $680 billion, $16 billion more than President Obama had requested.[3][4] Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expected an additional supplemental spending bill, possibly in the range of $40–50 billion, by the Spring of 2010 in order to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[5] Defense-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defense constitute between $216 billion and $361 billion in additional spending, bringing the total for defense spending to between $880 billion and $1.03 trillion in fiscal year 2010.[6]

Emergency and supplemental spending

The recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were largely funded through supplementary spending bills outside the Federal Budget, so they are not included in the military budget figures listed below.[7] In addition, the Pentagon has access to black budget military spending for special programs which is not listed as Federal spending and is not included in published military spending figures. Starting in the fiscal year 2010 budget however, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are categorized as "Overseas Contingency Operations" and included in the budget.

By the end of 2008, the U.S. had spent approximately $900 billion in direct costs on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Indirect costs such as interest on the additional debt and incremental costs of caring for the more than 33,000 wounded borne by the Veterans Administration are additional. Some experts estimate these indirect costs will eventually exceed the direct costs.[8]

By title

The federally budgeted (see below) military expenditure of the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2010, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is[9]:

Components Funding Change, 2009 to 2010
Operations and maintenance $283.3 billion +4.2%
Military Personnel $154.2 billion +5.0%
Procurement $140.1 billion −1.8%
Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation $79.1 billion +1.3%
Military Construction $23.9 billion +19.0%
Family Housing $3.1 billion −20.2%
Total Spending $685.1 billion +3.0%

By service

Service 2010 Budget request[10] Percentage of Total
Army $225.2 billion 33.9%
Navy/Marine Corps $171.7 billion 25.9%
Air Force $160.5 billion 24.2%
Defense Wide $106.4 billion 16.0%

Programs spending more than $1 billion

The FY 2009 $104.2 billion procurement and $79.6 billion RDT&E budgets appropriated several programs with more than $1 billion.

Program 2009 Budget request[11][12] Change, 2008 to 2009
Missile Defense $9.4 billion +8.0%
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter $6.9 billion +6.2%
Carrier Replacement Program $4.2 billion +23.5%
F-22 Raptor $4.1 billion −6.8%
Virginia class submarine $3.9 billion +14.7%
Future Combat System $3.3 billion −2.9%
DDG 1000 Destroyer $3.2 billion −8.6%
C-17 $3.0 billion
V-22 Osprey $2.7 billion +3.8%
Space-Based Infrared System $2.3 billion +130.0%
F/A-18E/F Hornet $2.0 billion −4.8%
MH-60R/S $1.9 billion +72.7%
EA-18G Growler $1.8 billion +12.5%
Chemical Demilitarization $1.6 billion +0.0%
Stryker $1.3 billion +18.2%
Littoral combat ship $1.3 billion +116.7%
CH-47 Chinook $1.2 billion +9.1%
P-8A Poseidon $1.2 billion +33.3%
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle $1.2 billion +9.1%
UH-60 Black Hawk $1.1 billion −26.7%
E-2C/D Hawkeye $1.1 billion +22.2%
Trident II Ballistic Missile $1.1 billion +0.0%
Mobile User Objective System $1.0 billion +25.0%
Per-capita Defense Spending 1962-2015 (inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars)
Defense Spending 1962-2015 (inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars)[13][14]

This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance, cleanup, and production, which is in the Department of Energy budget, Veterans Affairs, the Treasury Department's payments in pensions to military retirees and widows and their families, interest on debt incurred in past wars, or State Department financing of foreign arms sales and militarily-related development assistance. Neither does it include defense spending that is not military in nature, such as the Department of Homeland Security, counter-terrorism spending by the FBI, and intelligence-gathering spending by NASA.

Budget Breakdown for 2011

Defense-related expenditure 2011 Budget request & Mandatory spending[1][15] Calculation[6][16]
DOD spending $721.3 billion Base budget + "Overseas Contingency Operations"
FBI counter-terrorism $2.7 billion At least one-third FBI budget.
International Affairs $10.1–$54.2 billion At minimum, foreign arms sales. At most, entire State budget
Energy Department, defense-related $20.9 billion
Veterans Affairs $66.2 billion
Homeland Security $54.7 billion
NASA, satellites $3.4–$8.5 billion Between 20% and 50% of NASA's total budget
Veterans pensions $58.4 billion
Other defense-related mandatory spending $7.5 billion
Interest on debt incurred in past wars $57.7–$228.1 billion Between 23% and 91% of total interest
Total Spending $1.003–$1.223 trillion

Support service contractors

Main article: Defense contractor
See also: List of United States defense contractors

The role of support service contractors has increased since 2001 and in 2007 payments for contractor services exceeded investments in equipment for the armed forces for the first time.[17] In the 2010 budget the support service contractors will be reduced from the current 39 percent of the workforce down to the pre-2001 level of 26 percent.[18]

Military budget and total US federal spending

File:U.S. Federal Spending - FY 2007.png
Fiscal Year 2009 U.S. Federal Spending – Cash or Budget Basis

The U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2010 for about 19% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures and 28% of estimated tax revenues. Including non-DOD expenditures, defense spending was approximately 25–29% of budgeted expenditures and 38–44% of estimated tax revenues. According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000–2009.[19]

Because of constitutional limitations, military funding is appropriated in a discretionary spending account. (Such accounts permit government planners to have more flexibility to change spending each year, as opposed to mandatory spending accounts that mandate spending on programs in accordance with the law, outside of the budgetary process.) In recent years, discretionary spending as a whole has amounted to about one-third of total federal outlays.[20] Military funding's share of discretionary funding was 50.5% in 2003, and has risen steadily ever since.[21]

For FY 2010, Department of Defense spending amounts to 4.7% of GDP.[22] Because the U.S. GDP has risen over time, the military budget can rise in absolute terms while shrinking as a percentage of the GDP. For example, the Department of Defense budget is slated to be $664 billion in 2010 (including the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan previously funded through supplementary budget legislation[23][24]), higher than at any other point in American history, but still 1.1–1.4% lower as a percentage of GDP than the amount spent on defense during the peak of Cold-War military spending in the late 1980s.[22] Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called four percent an "absolute floor".[25] This calculation does not take into account some other defense-related non-DOD spending, such as Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and interest paid on debt incurred in past wars, which has increased even as a percentage of the national GDP.

Comparison with other countries

Military spending as a percentage of GDP

The 2009 U.S. military budget is almost as much as the rest of the world's defense spending combined and is over nine times larger than the military budget of China (compared at the nominal US dollar / Renminbi rate, not the PPP rate). The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's military spending (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority)[26][27] . China's reported defense spending is, however, a matter of debate as the PRC official numbers are often underreported.[citation needed] Additionally, the Chinese defense establishment owns and operates companies within China and uses profits as well as the companies themselves to invest in defense research and production.

In 2005, the United States spent 4.06% of its GDP on its military (considering only basic Department of Defense budget spending), more than France's 2.6% and less than Saudi Arabia's 10%.[28] This is historically low for the United States since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP (it reached the lowest point of 3.0% in 1999–2001). Even during the peak of the Vietnam War the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968.[29]

Recent commentary on military budget

File:U.S. Defense Spending - 2006 to 2010.png
Defense spending 2006–2010
File:U.S. Defense Spending - % to Outlays.png
Defense spending as % Outlays FY 1950–2007

In February 2009, Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., called for a reduction in the defense budget: "The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy. I am working with a variety of thoughtful analysts to show how we can make very substantial cuts in the military budget without in any way diminishing the security we need...[American] well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face."[30]

Republican historian Robert Kagan has argued that 2009 is not the time to cut defense spending, relating such spending to jobs and support for allies: "A reduction in defense spending this year would unnerve American allies and undercut efforts to gain greater cooperation. There is already a sense around the world...that the United States is in terminal decline. Many fear that the economic crisis will cause the United States to pull back from overseas commitments. The announcement of a defense cutback would be taken by the world as evidence that the American retreat has begun."[31]

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote in January 2009 that the U.S. should adjust its priorities and spending to address the changing nature of threats in the world: "What all these potential adversaries—from terrorist cells to rogue nations to rising powers—have in common is that they have learned that it is unwise to confront the United States directly on conventional military terms. The United States cannot take its current dominance for granted and needs to invest in the programs, platforms, and personnel that will ensure that dominance's persistence. But it is also important to keep some perspective. As much as the U.S. Navy has shrunk since the end of the Cold War, for example, in terms of tonnage, its battle fleet is still larger than the next 13 navies combined—and 11 of those 13 navies are U.S. allies or partners."[32] Secretary Gates announced some of his budget recommendations in April 2009.[33]

The Congressional Research Service has noted a discrepancy between a budget that is declining as a percentage of GDP while the responsibilities of the DoD have not decreased and additional pressures on the defense budget have arisen due to broader missions in the post-9/11 world, dramatic increases in personnel and operating costs, and new requirements resulting from wartime lessons in the Iraq War and Operation Enduring Freedom.[34]

See also

Wikinews has related news:

References

  1. ^ a b Updated Summary Tables, Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2010 (Table S.12)
  2. ^ http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf
  3. ^ Remarks by the President at the Signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010
  4. ^ Senate OKs defense bill, 68-29
  5. ^ The New York Times, Pentagon Expected to Request More War Funding
  6. ^ a b Robert Higgs. "The Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget Is Already Here". Retrieved March 15, 2007.
  7. ^ David Isenberg, Budgeting for Empire: The effect of Iraq and Afghanistan on Military Forces, Budgets and Plans
  8. ^ Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments-Cost of the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars Through 2008
  9. ^ Table 3.2—Outlays by Function and Subfunction: 1962–2014
  10. ^ Death and Taxes
  11. ^ Open Congressional Research Service, Defense: FY2009 Authorization and Appropriations
  12. ^ DoD FY 2009 Budget Request Summary Justification, Major Weapons Systems
  13. ^ Historical Outlays by Function and Subfunction
  14. ^ Historical Outlays by Agency
  15. ^ Table 8.5—Outlays for Mandatory and Related Programs: 1962–2014
  16. ^ Christopher Hellman. "America Spending More on Security Than Most Know". Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  17. ^ Sandra I. Erwin (June 2007). "More Services, Less Hardware Define Current Military Buildup". Defense Watch. National Defense Industrial Association. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
  18. ^ Defense Budget Recommendation Statement, SoD Gates, 6 April 2009
  19. ^ CBO-Monthly Budget Review-Sept 09
  20. ^ Congressional Appropriations: An Updated Analysis
  21. ^ "Fiscal Year 2002 Budget". Center for Defense Information. Retrieved 2006-07-13.
  22. ^ a b The President's FY 2010 Budget
  23. ^ Mike Carney (22 October 2007). "Bush submits $42.3B Iraq war supplemental funding bill". USA Today. Retrieved 06 October 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  24. ^ AUGUST COLE (5 February 2008). "Bush's Successor to Confront Tough Decisions on Defense". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  25. ^ Joint Chiefs Chairman Looks Beyond Current Wars
  26. ^ World Military Spending, Anup Shah
  27. ^ "World Wide Military Expenditures". GlobalSecurity.org. 2006. Retrieved May 10th 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  28. ^ CIA World Factbook. "Rank Order – Military expenditures percent of GDP". Retrieved 2006-05-26.
  29. ^ "Relative Size of US Military Spending from 1940 to 2003". TruthAndPolitics.org. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ Barney Frank – The Nation
  31. ^ Robert Kagan – Washington Post
  32. ^ Gates-A Balanced Strategy
  33. ^ Slate-Gates Follows Through
  34. ^ CRS Defense: FY2010 Authorization and Appropriations, pages 6–8
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