Here's how the US military spends its billions

How the US military spends its billions - Business Insider
The US military is unquestionably the dominant force on the planet.

From the greatest advances in technology to a massive network of military alliances, the US military retains a substantial lead over the militaries of every other country on the planet. And the backbone of this military greatness comes in large part from the economic prosperity of the US and the incredible funding that the Pentagon receives.

In 2015, the US will have a declared military and defense budget of $601 billion, which is more than the next 7 highest spending countries combined. The following graphics show how the US will make use of its billions.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

The vast majority of the $601 billion will be funneled towards the military's base budget, which includes funding for the procurement of military equipment and the daily operations costs of US bases.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

Of the $496 billion base budget, the vast majority of funding goes towards the cost of operating and maintaining the military and the cost of paying and caring for military personnel. A further $90.4 billion is set aside for the procurement of new weapons systems during the 2015 fiscal year.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

In terms of investments, the US has dedicated a substantial chunk of funding into aircraft and related systems. This is due to the procurement of the F-35 fifth-generation fighter, which is entering into service with the Marine Corps this year. The 2015 budget also has started to allocate funds for the next-generation long-range strike bomber for the Air Force.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

In terms of major acquisitions, the F-35 has been the dominant cost with the procurement of 34 aircraft. The new Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine, which is intended to help modernize the US submarine fleet, is the second main acquisition cost for 2015. The $6.3 billion price tag is for two subs.



By department, the US Navy will receive the most funding in 2015. However, the Department of the Navy's funding also includes the 2015 budget for the US Marine Corps.

if all this money spend five years on poor on earth i think there will be no more poverty on earth . but we humans are stupid

Imran Khan said:

if all this money spend five years on poor on earth i think there will be no more poverty on earth . but we humans are stupid

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yes, I agree my friend, @Imran Khan . But then again let me play the Devil's Advocate here, what if Pakistan stops spending money on the Armed Services and concentrate on education, infrastructure, economic reforms and all that, what do you think your next door neighbor will do? Do you think they will follow suit?Lets do it further, what if Pakistan decides to dismantle your nuclear arsenal stop spending money on it? What happens then!?

James Jaevid said:

yes, I agree my friend, @Imran Khan . But then again let me play the Devil's Advocate here, what if Pakistan stops spending money on the Armed Services and concentrate on education, infrastructure, economic reforms and all that, what do you think your next door neighbor will do? Do you think they will follow suit?Lets do it further, what if Pakistan decides to dismantle your nuclear arsenal stop spending money on it? What happens then!?

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pakistan has existential threat from india and terrorism, we are attacked almost on daily basis. What threat does US have in terms of continental US, other than to protect "US interest" abroad.

truthseeker2010 said:

pakistan has existential threat from india and terrorism, we are attacked almost on daily basis. What threat does US have in terms of continental US, other than to protect "US interest" abroad.

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@truthseeker2010 , and the United States has no " existential threat" as you put it? Most average American doesn't give a jack*ss on such threats before 9/11 and we were attacked by a terrorist organization which killed thousands of innocent lives. Some people wont consider that a "threat" or a conspiracy theory of some sorts as I have seen here on PDF. The US Military Budget is for the US MILITARY to defend American Citizens and its allies. I suppose your country won't spend that even if you have the money. Wait!! No need to answer that one... Bottom line.. ITS OUR MONEY THAT WE ARE SPENDING!!!!

James Jaevid said:

@truthseeker2010 , and I suppose the United States has no " existential threat" as you put it? Most average American doesn't give a jack*ss on such threats before 9/11 and we were attacked by a terrorist organization which killed thousands of innocent lives. I suppose some people wont consider that a "threat" or a conspiracy theory of some sorts as I have seen here on PDF. The US Military Budget is for the US MILITARY to defend American Citizens and its allies. I suppose your country won't spend that even if you have the money. Wait!! No need to answer that one... Bottom line.. ITS OUR MONEY THAT WE ARE SPENDING!!!!

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Not that it is of any concern to me, but deficit is a problem.

What is the view of American Public on this problem? Any recent polls?

AFAIK both republicans and democrats are unlikely to cut defense spending in any meaningful way by closing down their overseas bases, turning their backs on allies who depend on them and seeding ground to China and Russia for further mischief. Best we can hope is that sequestration will not be reversed.

US for the good or bad is doing the job of UN in absence of any impartial powerful military force to keep other nations in line contingent on their interests. Nothing wrong with it; if India had the money it would do the same.

The question is does US has the money or is it following in steps of USSR

Imran Khan said:

if all this money spend five years on poor on earth i think there will be no more poverty on earth . but we humans are stupid

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There will always be poverty. This will just cause the poverty income line to shift upwards.

Imran Khan said:

if all this money spend five years on poor on earth i think there will be no more poverty on earth . but we humans are stupid

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you are absolutely correct.

Spectre said:

Not that it is of any concern to me, but deficit is a problem.

What is the view of American Public on this problem? Any recent polls?

AFAIK both republicans and democrats are unlikely to cut defense spending in any meaningful way by closing down their overseas bases, turning their backs on allies who depend on them and seeding ground to China and Russia for further mischief. Best we can hope is that sequestration will not be reversed.

US for the good or bad is doing the job of UN in absence of any impartial powerful military force to keep other nations in line contingent on their interests. Nothing wrong with it; if India had the money it would do the same.

The question is does US has the money or is it following in steps of USSR

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@Spectre, buddy if India is going to do the same then I hope you have political ambitions in the future to become your India's PRESIDENT!!

Now with regards to the US Military Budget, it is not just some ya hoo or what have you that has thought about it today and decided to release the budget for disbursement the next. It has to go through the "HILL" in Washington for approval by our "Elected Leaders" (which some consider including me, are useless bunch of bureaucrats) those are the Republicans and Democrats that you mentioned.

With what is the American Public's view on this you mean? To be frank, most of US here don't care as long as there is cheap gasoline for our cars. If it was approved by the people in the "HILL" then that's it! That is why we voted for them in the first place hahahahaha! If they are doing a good job, that is another story! But of course if you think about it, people would think they could have used that amount of money for something else. But for me, its money well spent. The US of A and "most" of it's allies doesn't have much fans out there and they would be happy to burn us to the ground. One thing is for certain...

They can try... THE US MILITARY IS HERE!!!

your inputs gentlemen @C130 , @Peter C , @gambit , @AMDR

James Jaevid said:

@Spectre, buddy if India is going to do the same then I hope you have political ambitions in the future to become your India's PRESIDENT!!

Now with regards to the US Military Budget, it is not just some ya hoo or what have you that has thought about it today and decided to release the budget for disbursement the next. It has to go through the "HILL" in Washington for approval by our "Elected Leaders" (which some consider including me, are useless bunch of bureaucrats) those are the Republicans and Democrats that you mentioned.

With what is the American Public's view on this you mean? To be frank, most of US here don't care as long as there is cheap gasoline for their cars. If it was approved by the people in the "HILL" then that's it! That is why we voted for them in the first place hahahahaha! If they are doing a good job that is another story! But of course if you think about it, people would think they could have used that amount of money for something else. But for me, its money well spent. The US of A and "most" of it's allies doesn't have much fans out there and they would be happy to burn us to the ground. One thing is for certain...

They can try... THE US MILITARY IS HERE!!!

your inputs gentlemen @C130 , @Peter C , @gambit , @AMDR

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4

Just a small correction - India's president is as powerful as US Veep.

I think you don't give enough to credit to US Public specially in the blue states.

Yeah you are right about US's enemies - Only the Paranoid Survive

James Jaevid said:

@Spectre, buddy if India is going to do the same then I hope you have political ambitions in the future to become your India's PRESIDENT!!

Now with regards to the US Military Budget, it is not just some ya hoo or what have you that has thought about it today and decided to release the budget for disbursement the next. It has to go through the "HILL" in Washington for approval by our "Elected Leaders" (which some consider including me, are useless bunch of bureaucrats) those are the Republicans and Democrats that you mentioned.

With what is the American Public's view on this you mean? To be frank, most of US here don't care as long as there is cheap gasoline for their cars. If it was approved by the people in the "HILL" then that's it! That is why we voted for them in the first place hahahahaha! If they are doing a good job, that is another story! But of course if you think about it, people would think they could have used that amount of money for something else. But for me, its money well spent. The US of A and "most" of it's allies doesn't have much fans out there and they would be happy to burn us to the ground. One thing is for certain...

They can try... THE US MILITARY IS HERE!!!

your inputs gentlemen @C130 , @Peter C , @gambit , @AMDR

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Exactly. I think that at the end of the day we have to put ourselves in perspective from history

We thought WW1 was "The war to end all wars" because of its sheer brutality. 30 years later another war killed 60 million people. We thought when we pulled out of Iraq that AQI would fizzle out. 2 years later we have a bunch of fanatical loonies (some from AQI) establish a state solely based on terrorism and genocide.

What I'm trying to say is that the moment we think it can't possibly get any worse, it gets worse. THAT is why we must keep the military budget high and maintain a high level of readiness.

People will say "We should reduce military spending", but those same people will complain that we weren't ready to deal with a threat that came up because we REDUCED spending (and therefore sacrificed readiness) in the first place. So we might as well keep the spending high like you said.

James Jaevid said:

@Spectre, buddy if India is going to do the same then I hope you have political ambitions in the future to become your India's PRESIDENT!!

Now with regards to the US Military Budget, it is not just some ya hoo or what have you that has thought about it today and decided to release the budget for disbursement the next. It has to go through the "HILL" in Washington for approval by our "Elected Leaders" (which some consider including me, are useless bunch of bureaucrats) those are the Republicans and Democrats that you mentioned.

With what is the American Public's view on this you mean? To be frank, most of US here don't care as long as there is cheap gasoline for our cars. If it was approved by the people in the "HILL" then that's it! That is why we voted for them in the first place hahahahaha! If they are doing a good job, that is another story! But of course if you think about it, people would think they could have used that amount of money for something else. But for me, its money well spent. The US of A and "most" of it's allies doesn't have much fans out there and they would be happy to burn us to the ground. One thing is for certain...

They can try... THE US MILITARY IS HERE!!!

your inputs gentlemen @C130 , @Peter C , @gambit , @AMDR

Click to expand...

AMDR said:

Exactly. I think that at the end of the day we have to put ourselves in perspective from history

We thought WW1 was "The war to end all wars" because of its sheer brutality. 30 years later another war killed 60 million people. We thought when we pulled out of Iraq that AQI would fizzle out. 2 years later we have a bunch of fanatical loonies (some from AQI) establish a state solely based on terrorism and genocide.

What I'm trying to say is that the moment we think it can't possibly get any worse, it gets worse. THAT is why we must keep the military budget high and maintain a high level of readiness.

People will say "We should reduce military spending", but those same people will complain that we weren't ready to deal with a threat that came up because we REDUCED spending (and therefore sacrificed readiness) in the first place. So we might as well keep the spending high like you said.

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It's not about right or wrong but survival. As james put it they don't have much fans around the world and if USA military diminishes then most trusted partners will be the first to cut the throat.

As our former president said-

"Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength."

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Only thing protect Americans is their military. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

James Jaevid said:

@Spectre, buddy if India is going to do the same then I hope you have political ambitions in the future to become your India's PRESIDENT!!

Now with regards to the US Military Budget, it is not just some ya hoo or what have you that has thought about it today and decided to release the budget for disbursement the next. It has to go through the "HILL" in Washington for approval by our "Elected Leaders" (which some consider including me, are useless bunch of bureaucrats) those are the Republicans and Democrats that you mentioned.

With what is the American Public's view on this you mean? To be frank, most of US here don't care as long as there is cheap gasoline for our cars. If it was approved by the people in the "HILL" then that's it! That is why we voted for them in the first place hahahahaha! If they are doing a good job, that is another story! But of course if you think about it, people would think they could have used that amount of money for something else. But for me, its money well spent. The US of A and "most" of it's allies doesn't have much fans out there and they would be happy to burn us to the ground. One thing is for certain...

They can try... THE US MILITARY IS HERE!!!

your inputs gentlemen @C130 , @Peter C , @gambit , @AMDR

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we could of did better with less, but you know being the worlds sheriff is expensive.

C130 said:

we could of did better with less, but you know being the worlds sheriff is expensive.

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@C130, ohh buddy you are being modest now... I would have settled for "THE WORLDS ONLY SUPAHPAWAH"...

C130 said:

we could of did better with less, but you know being the worlds sheriff is expensive.

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James Jaevid said:

@C130, ohh buddy you are being modest now... I would have settled for "THE WORLDS ONLY SUPAHPAWAH"...

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If you wait for war to reach to your country then you already half lost. Just my opinion which is not matter much anyway.