The U.S. is a first world country. The U.S. is a military superpower that polices the whole world. The U.S. is also one of the most powerful countries in the world that is not a dictatorship, Americans have an opportunity to switch presidents every four years. Unlike the U.S., countries like China, Russia, and North Korea have had the same leaders for at least 10 years each; with Russia’s Leader, Vladimir Putin, being there the longest, about 25 years, all according to Britannica.
The U.S. is great offensively, they are just as good at defense and this one fact helps them more than anything else. The U.S. has a defense budget of about 895.2 billion dollars. China has the second highest defense budget in the world, and it’s in the 235 billion to 300 billion dollar range. In third, is Russia with about 126 to 150 billion dollars a year. The U.S. has a higher defense budget than the next 10 countries combined.
When asked about where the money will come from, Alexander Adams, a business teacher at Eaton High School, said, “Well, generally speaking, the answer is usually always us, because it could be on our taxes, but a lot of the times, not always… if they tax, say, a big corporation, that usually gets passed down to the consumer. So I think we’re gonna pay for it one way or another.” Those 10 countries, which can be seen on the graph below, consist of European and Asian countries with Australia straying from that normal.
According to pgpf.org in the U.S., 38 percent of the defense budget goes towards operation and maintenance, which is about 340 billion dollars from the U.S. defense budget. Operations consist of basically missions the U.S. goes on. For example, Operation Desert Storm, January to Feburary, 1991, and Operation Desert Shield, August to January, 1990-1991, or even more recently, the operation by Delta Force to capture Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s Leader. Maintenance consists of almost everything in the U.S: military, tanks, trucks, bases, aircraft carriers, F-22s, F-16s, etc.
Next on the list, 22 percent of the defense budget goes towards military personnel, roughly 196 billion dollars. Military personnel consist of recruiting, reserve officers’ training corps, or better known as ROTC, scholarships and support pay and retirement benefits for service members.
Recruiting is, in simple words, recruitment of more personnel. ROTC is the military paying for people to go to college to complete a degree of their choice and in return that person is required to serve for a minimum of two years, but they aren’t just a new recruit they are made an officer. Being made an officer means being automatically put into a leadership role.
Next, 17% of the spending, which is about 152 billion dollars, goes to procurement. Procurement is the strategic process of buying the right supplies, from the right suppliers at the right price and time. Suppliers like Lockheed Martin, General Electric, etc.
Research and development take up the next 16 percent, about 143 billion dollars. This consists of evaluation to drive technological supremacy, a big one as of recently is the development of AI or artificial intelligence.
The last seven percent goes to other things that were missed by the rest of the spending.
The Trump administration would like to increase this 895 billion dollar budget up to 1.5 trillion dollars by 2027, which is almost doubling the current number. The largest before was only 997 billion dollars and it was in 2024. When asked about why this funding is necessary, from Trump calls for US defense budget hike to US$1.5 trillion by DigiTimes, Trump said in a social media post,”Dream Military… in these very troubled and dangerous times.” With all the conflict in the world, ranging from Russia and Ukraine to Israel and the Middle East, the world has definitely become a more dangerous place. While it may seem like a waste of tax-payer dollars, it may be the best choice for the safety of Americans.
