The US military funding is that portion of the Federal discretionary
budget allocated for the Defense Department. It is responsible for
paying the salaries, training, and healthcare needs of both uniformed
and civilian personnel. Likewise, the budget is used for the
maintenance of weapons, equipments and infrastructure, and operations
as well as the development and purchase of new equipments. It is
allocated for the five branches of service.
This year, the base budget of the US Armed Forces increased to $515.4
billion. If emergency discretionary and supplemental expenditures are
added, it will increase to $651.2 billion. The figure does not include
most military-related tasks not include in the DND budget such as
nuclear weapons research, production and maintenance, Veterans
Affairs, interests on debt accrued in previous wars. As of this year,
the total spending of the government on defense-related purposes is $1
trillion per year.
The US defense funding is the biggest in the world. In 2007, the DOD
had a base budget amounting to $431.7 billion. During the War on
Terrorism, an extra $169.2 billion was requested for its operations
purpose. With the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act
of 2008, Congress authorized the release of $688.6 billion to the
national defense funds.
A year later, the requested based budget for the Department of Defense
rose by 11.1% to $479.5 billion. With the $189.1 billion supplemental
funding for the War on Terrorism, the total budget for national
defense was $668.6 billion. In 2009, expenditures for national defense
saw a sustained growth. The base budget request went up to $515.4
billion, allocation for the War on Terrorism was at $70 billion and
supplemental spending was at $65 billion.
Among the different branches of service, the US Air Force had the
biggest allocation at $143.9 billion, followed by the Army at $140.7
billion. The Navy and the Marine Corps had an allocation of $124.4
billion and $24.9 billion, respectively. Defense wide expenditures had
a total allocation of $81.6 billion.
Operations and maintenance had the biggest allocation among the
various military functions at $179.8 billion. Personnel services
received $125.2 billion, procurement got $104.2 billion while research
and development efforts received $79.6 billion. Military construction
and family housing were allocated $21.9 and $2.9 billion,
respectively. A total of $2.7 billion was allocated as revolving
funds.
The major defense programs of the US Armed Forces also received a huge
chunk of the budget. A total of $4.1 billion was allocated for the
F-22 Raptor, a next generation fighter, which is set to release 20
additional planes for 2009. Still in its developmental stages, the
F-35 Lightning II received $6.7 billion worth of allocation. The
funding will be utilized for the construction of sixteen planes.
Aside from that, the development of the Future Combat System had an
allocation of $3.6 billion. The procurement of missile defense systems
such as the Patriot CAP, PAC-3, and SBIRS-High, got $12.3 billion. The
establishment of a third missile defense facility somewhere in Europe
received $720 million worth of allocation.
The continuation of the Aircraft Carrier Replacement Program was
funded for $4.2 billion. An additional $389 million for the AFRICOM
system was requested the development and maintenance of the said
command. As part of its War on Terrorism, the expansion of the Army
and Marine Corps as well as the recruitment, training, and maintenance
of the National Guards and Reserves, received allocations amounting to
$20.5 and $49.1 billion, respectively.
The US military funding is a living testimony on why the United States
remains as one of the most formidable military in the world.
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