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richtcs richtcs
 
M$3 February 24, 2009 11:18 PM

What does the USA spend on its military?

Please provide numbers for the most recent year possible (it would be even greater to get numbers for the past several years). Include all aspects of military spending, including the special allotments for Iraq and Afghanistan, which don't fall under the *regular* annual budget of the Pentagon.
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philipy philipy
 
 February 24, 2009 11:56 PM
This seems to be a good estimate from a non-partisan think tank in DC, using data from the Office of Management and Budget:

http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/defense_spending_since_2001/index.html

http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/current_spending_vs_historical_highs/

Headlines:

The total for 2008 was $696bn, of which $507bn was the base budget, and $189bn for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The base figure includes defense related spending by all govt agencies, including for example spending on nuclear weapons by the Dept of Energy.

The total estimate for 2009 is $706bn.

Check the source to get the details on what is covered by the numbers.

When looking at these charts and tables, be careful to check what the dollar values refer to. Some charts use a baseline of 2001 dollars, others use 2008 dollars.
Asker's Rating:
• Thanks - useful references, concise answer, and it even broke down the total defense spending into the base budget and war expenses for Iraq and Afghanistan.


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smokenherb smokenherb
 
February 24, 2009 11:22 PM
In 2008 $623 billion
Source(s):
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm


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contractsr... contractsr...
 
February 25, 2009 08:36 AM
The data you are looking for can be found on

http://www.militarybudget.info/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

See flickr photo as well

Source(s):
http://www.militarybudget.info/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States


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nadiraziz nadiraziz
 
February 25, 2009 12:45 PM
The military budget is that portion of the United States discretionary federal budget that is allocated to the Department of Defense. This military budget pays the salaries, training, and healthcare 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.

For the 2009 fiscal year, the base budget rose to US$515.4 billion. Adding emergency discretionary spending and supplemental spending brings the sum to US$651.2 billion.[1] This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance and production (about $9.3 billion, which is in the Department of Energy budget), Veterans Affairs (about $33.2 billion), interest on debt incurred in past wars, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which are largely funded through extra-budgetary supplements, about $170 billion in 2007). As of 2009, the United States government is spending about $1 trillion annually on defense-related purposes.

By title
The federally budgeted (see below) military expenditure of the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2009 is
http://i43.tinypic.com/1zgvprq.jpg

Not included in the DoD budget is $23.4 billion to be spent by the Department of Energy to develop and maintain nuclear warheads.

By service
http://i43.tinypic.com/35amct5.jpg

Programs spending more than $1 billion
The $84.1 billion procurement budget includes several programs with 2008 allocations of more than $1 billion.
http://i39.tinypic.com/13yp508.jpg

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org


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