The US government's colossal defence spending revealed
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America's bulging military budget
Wonder how much money the US spends on its military and exactly where all the cash goes? We take a closer look at US defence spending.
This year's budget
Last year, President Obama approved a staggering $523.9 billion (£406bn) base defence budget for the 2017 fiscal year, a relatively modest inflationary increase of $2.2 billion (£1.7bn) over the previous fiscal year.
Global threats
As outlined in the press release for the 2017 fiscal year budget, the key global threats America faces range from North Korean and Russian aggression to international terrorism and China's military build-up in the South China Sea.
Four branches
The defence budget funds the four principal branches of the US military: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. Combined they number 2.2 million active duty and reserve members, 200,000 of whom are deployed overseas in 177 countries.
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How the cash is shared out
The Army and Marine Corp get 25% of the total military budget, the Navy is allocated 29% and the Air Force is awarded 28%. The remaining 18% of the budget is put aside for defence-wide activities.
Declining expenditure
While US military spending has declined by around 5% in the past 10 years, other countries have boosted their defence budgets, including China, which has hiked up spending by 118% during the same period.
Big spender
Despite this, the USA still boasts the biggest military budget on the planet by a long shot, spending more money on defence than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and several other countries combined, not to mention 53 times more than North Korea, which reportedly spends around $10 billion (£7.8bn) a year.
GDP percentage
Military spending accounts for around 3.3% of America's GDP. By way of contrast, defence spending represents a massive 22% of North Korea's GDP, 10% of Saudi Arabia's, 5.3% of Russia's GDP, and just 1.9% of the UK's.
Monster budget
In terms of total US government spending, including mandatory spending and discretionary expenditure which varies each year, defence is allocated the third largest budget, behind Medicare and social security.
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Discretionary budget
The US government spends 54% of its entire discretionary budget on defence. To give you an idea how much public cash America's military swallows up, welfare is allocated only 3% of the total discretionary budget, while transportation gets just 2%.
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Wasteful spending
An internal study issued by the US Defense Department in 2015 uncovered a staggering $125 billion (£96.8bn) in bureaucratic waste. The report was promptly buried by the Pentagon and only came to light following an investigation by the Washington Post newspaper.
Skyrocketing spending
Keen to reverse the relative decline in spending, President Trump is planning to spend big on the US military. The House of Representatives recently approved a colossal base defence budget of $696 billion (£539bn) for the 2018 fiscal year, an increase of 33%.
Extra cash
The extra cash will be used to pay for additional soldiers and cutting-edge equipment, as well as bankrolling a pay rise for military and civilian personnel. The money will also be spent on Trump's new Afghanistan military strategy and shoring up America's cyber security.
Fighting ISIS
On top of the enormous $696 billion (£539bn) base budget for 2018, a total of $76.6 billion (£59.2bn) has been approved to fund the fight against ISIS in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the world.
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Operations, maintenance and construction
The bulk of the military budget goes on funding operations, maintenance of equipment and construction of new facilities. In 2016, a generous 43% of the defence budget was earmarked for these essentials.
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Military and civilian personnel
A good 25% of the 2016 defence budget was used to cover training, salaries, healthcare and housing for the military's millions of uniformed and civilian personnel, who will benefit from an expanded budget next year.
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Military pay and benefits
Salaries for military personnel have risen considerably over the last 16 years. Since 2001, military pay has surged by 85%, and personnel are entitled to a wealth of benefits, from comprehensive healthcare to rock-solid pensions.
Viagra bill
Hitting the headlines earlier this year, the military's annual $84 million (£65m) Viagra bill gives you an indication of how much the military spends on healthcare. Personnel enjoy superior coverage and qualify for medical extras such as dental veneers and other cosmetic treatments and surgeries.
Procurement
Investing in the latest state-of-the-art military hardware doesn't come cheap and, unsurprisingly, around 20% of the total defence budget for 2016 was put aside for procuring new weapons and equipment.
RDT&E
The US military is renowned for owning the patents and copyrights on the latest and best weapons, equipment and other innovations, and its research and development is second to none, taking up the remaining 12% of the total defence budget.
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Science & Technology Program
Bolstering research and development, the Science and Technology Program “invests in and develops capabilities that advance the technical superiority of the US Military to counter new and emerging threats”. The program was allocated $12 billion (£9.3bn) for the current fiscal year.
The world's number one arms exporter
The USA is the world's biggest exporter of weapons, accounting for 33% of global arms exports. Among the 94 nations that buy arms from America, Saudi Arabia is the biggest spender, followed by the UAE and Australia.
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Key military equipment importer
In recent years, the US Military has snapped up Swiss trainer aircraft, German light helicopters and Spanish patrol planes. In fact, America is the eight largest importer of military equipment on the planet.
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Major acquisitions for 2017
The US military's major acquisitions for the current fiscal year include 63 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets costing $10.5 billion (£8.1bn), a total of 12 Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers at $3.3 billion (£2.6bn) and two nuclear-powered submarines costing $5.3 billion (£4.1bn).
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Major acquisitions for 2018
Armed with extra cash, the US military will go on a spending spree in the 2018 fiscal year, paying out billions for a brand new aircraft carrier, a pair of Virginia Class submarines and an additional 15 Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers.