Top 15 nations with the highest military expenditure

[cyphercide]

India spends only $41.3bn. Putty for its size. Countries such as UK and France who don't even have enemies spend more than India does. India should increase its defense budget.

What is your take on this?

Well,a good place to start will be to increase the FDI index in the defence production sector from the paltry 26% it currently is to high 40s.India could also learn to effectively utilize it's offset agreements like how Turkey and Israel used the same to boost domestic manufacturing and research up to western standards.

 

[Sasquatch]

China true budget is rumored to be around $200 Billion.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

US($698 billion) = 4.8% of GDP
China ($119 bn) = 2% of GDP
UK ($59.6 bn) = 2.6% of GDP
France ($59.3bn) = 2.3% of GDP
Russia ($58.7bn) = 4% of GDP
Japan ($54.5bn) = 1% of GDP
Germany ($45.2bn) = 1.4% of GDP
Saudi Arabia ($45.2bn) = 10.1% of GDP
India ($41.3bn) = 2.5% of GDP
Italy ($37bn) = 1.8% of GDP
Brazil ($33.5bn) = 1.6% of GDP
South Korea ($27.6bn) = 2.7% of GDP
Australia ($24bn) = 1.9% of GDP
Canada ($22.8bn) = 1.4% of GDP
Turkey ($17.5bn) = 2.4% of GDP

Out of the top five, we spend the least as a percentage of GDP, only 2%.

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China true budget is rumored to be around $200 Billion.

Could be true. A lot of our spending is not classified as "defence spending", they fall under different labels.

But it's OK to spend a lot on defence, as long as the money is going into our own arms industry. That will boost our domestic economy and create jobs for us.

 

[Varad]

Out of the top five, we spend the least as a percentage of GDP, only 2%.

Bro, i believe these are SIPRI's official estimates. But Hu Songshan has rightly said, the true China budget some claim to be as high
250 billion.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Bro, i believe these are SIPRI's official estimates. But Hu Songshan has rightly said, the true China budget some claim to be as high
250 billion.

That sounds ridiculous to me, why would we spend 4% of our GDP on defence, we haven't had a war for over 30 years.

America is not only maintaining a global military presence (they have bases everywhere), but they are also currently fighting multiple wars in the Middle East... and their defence spending is only 5% of GDP.

Also remember, that $1 dollar goes a lot further in China than it does in the USA, because things are a lot cheaper here. We don't need to spend that much to be effective.

 

[Varad]

That sounds ridiculous to me, why would we spend 4% of our GDP on defence, we haven't had a war for over 30 years.

America is not only maintaining a global military presence (they have bases everywhere), but they are also currently fighting multiple wars in the Middle East... and their defence spending is only 5% of GDP.

Also remember, that $1 dollar goes a lot further in China than it does in the USA, because things are a lot cheaper here. We don't need to spend that much to be effective.

Well it may not be 250billion but certainly is much higher than the listed one. The reason you said it yourself in the bolded part
regarding the USA. Apart from that there are considerable issues like Taiwan and South China sea that would require good
military spending. The main expansion of China is in navy to counter the USN and i beleive navy is the most expensive wing
to expand viz a viz others.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Well it may not be 250billion but certainly is much higher than the listed one. The reason you said it yourself in the bolded part

Fair enough. I see 2-3% as optimal anyway.

It seems much more logical to me, to concentrate on the economy first.

If we double the size of our economy, then that will naturally double our defence spending, without having to raise the percentage at all.

The longer we stay patient, the greater our reward.

 

[Vimana]

India should not increase its defence budget as it has trouble spending the money already allocated to it, not to mention the funds could be better spend on education and poverty reduction measures.

 

[oct605032048]

it is difficult to draw a clear line between military spending and R&D spending. The DoD of US is the biggest and about 50% of funding source of US scientific community.

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Just look at the fastest supercomper in China, it seems the No.1 university is not PKU nor THU but NUDT.

 

[VelocuR]

Why Pakistan isn't on the lists ??

 

[great]

Why Pakistan isn't on the lists ??

Because it only spends $6.5 billion a year on defense.

 

[warondafe]

Saudi arabia spending 10% of gdp on defence, any country which spends above 6% of its gdp will have trouble managing their economy in the future.

 

[Luftwaffe]

Saudi Arabia ($45.2bn) = 10.1% of GDP
US($698 billion) = 4.8% of GDP

Saudi Arabia ($45.2bn) = 10.1% of GDP
Israel 16,000,000,000 6.3%
US($698 billion) = 4.8% of GDP

You gotta be shittin.g me.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Our military expenditure would vary with our defense needs accordingly, and this list is merely a figure.

 

[Stormweaver]

what is Canada spending so much for... who's going to attack them anyways.

UK and France has threats them to, terror and international operations.

Lemme see....

The Regulation of the Northwest passage, the second largest oil reserves in the world, one of the largest freshwater reserves in the world, one of the richest in natural resources, area bigger than the US, NATO commitments, terror threats and a very rich military history