The US Defence Budget is now greater than that of the next 25 countries put together!

[TheStinger]

France and Germany have large armies but they are conscripts so they are cheap

[DinoDoc]

France has an army?

[Arrian]

Good point, Dan.... is there a table that ranks the countries based on the % of GNP they are spending on the military?

That being said, I do think we have gone overboard. I fail to see how more M1A2s or F18s are going to stop terrorists.

-Arrian

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
France has an army?

its used to taunt english knights and throw cows at them

[Eli]

Yikes!

What's up with the Saudis? 27bil$?

[Kontiki]

I'll see what I can find for military spending as %age of GDP. Some interesting stuff in here http://www.cdi.org/products/almanac0102.pdf but almost exclusively about the US.

[Imran Siddiqui]

As pointed out % of GDP is what matters. US is going to 4%, which granted is much higher than European countries (average about 1% of GDP on defense), but nothing compared to some ME countries that go closer to 10% of GDP.

[Kontiki]

Here's a particularly interesting piece of info from my above link- see how much your favorite administration spent on the military:

U.S. Military Spending 1946 – 2002
Billions of $2002

1946 556.9 1947 52.4 1948 103.9 1949 144.2
1950 141.2 1951 224.3 1952 402.1 1953 442.3
1954 420.9 1955 376.9 1956 356.2 1957 360.9
1958 352.9 1959 352.5 1960 344.3 1961 344.0
1962 363.4 1963 368.0 1964 364.4 1965 333.1
1966 356.2 1967 412.0 1968 449.3 1969 438.1
1970 406.3 1971 370.6 1972 343.8 1973 313.3
1974 299.7 1975 293.3 1976 283.8 1977 286.2
1978 286.5 1979 295.6 1980 303.4 1981 317.4
1982 339.4 1983 366.7 1984 381.7 1985 405.4
1986 426.6 1987 427.9 1988 426.4 1989 427.7
1990 409.7 1991 358.1 1992 379.5 1993 358.6
1994 338.6 1995 321.6 1996 307.4 1997 305.3
1998 296.7 1999 298.4 2000 311.7 2001 307.8
2002 328.7

[DanS]

"see how much your favorite administration spent on the military"

I agree. The Kennedy and Johnson administrations were a bunch of defense whores.

[Kontiki]

Wow, sorry, that list is a little hard to read.....

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


As pointed out % of GDP is what matters. US is going to 4%, which granted is much higher than European countries (average about 1% of GDP on defense), but nothing compared to some ME countries that go closer to 10% of GDP.

Yes and no. True the US (and NATO countries, in general) have to spend more on pay than third world countries, but procurement and operations costs tend to be fairly similar (more or less). Again, from the link:

FISCAL YEAR 2002 — BUDGET AUTHORITY
(Dollars in Billions)
Military Personnel $82.3
Operations and Maintenance $125.7
Procurement $61.6
Research and Development $47.4
Military Construction $5.9
Family Housing $4.1
Other $1.9

In other words, the US is spending approximately 57% on ops, maintenance and procurement. That's over $187 billion.

[Kontiki]

Found some stuff on military as a percentage of GDP.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/007248179x/student_view0/chapter10/web_table_1.html

Here's the previous top 25 in percentage of GDP - the %ages are from 2000, so there won't be a perfect match:

United States - 3.3
Russia* 5.8
China* 2.2
Japan 1.0
United Kingdom 2.7
Saudi Arabia 14.5
France 3.0
Germany 1.6
Brazil* 1.8
India 2.8
Italy 2.0
South Korea 3.4
Iran 3.0
Israel 9.7
Taiwan no data
Canada 1.3
Spain 1.5
Australia 2.2
Netherlands 1.9
Turkey 4.0
Singapore 5.7
Sweden 2.5
United Arab Emirates* 6.9
Poland 2.3
Greece 4.6

[Asher]

Originally posted by Saint Marcus
in WW2, the US mainland was never in danger of being invaded, let alone by the Nazis.

Just because it never happened doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

Didn't Germany have some deal with Mexico or something? (I'm hardly a history major but for some reason I think I remember this)

I've also seen the coastal defenses on the coast of California. They took an invasion threat quite seriously at the time...

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Asher
Didn't Germany have some deal with Mexico or something? (I'm hardly a history major but for some reason I think I remember this)

That was WWI.

U boat attacks off the coast of the Continental US was the closest the Germans ever got to attacking the US mainland IIRC.

[MikeH]

UK dropped to 2.5% last year and is expected to drop again.

[Az]

Israel 9.7%

Saudi Arabia 14.5