Military spending by country for 2021

 U.S. MILITARY SPENDING TO BE $857 BILLION FOR 2023

U.S SPENDING 38% OF WORLD DEFENSE SPENDING

Military spending for the last full year of 2021 was as follows:

U.S. $801 billion

China $293 billion

India $76 billion

U.K $68 billion

Russia $65.9 billion

France $56.6 billion

Germany $56 billion

Saudi Arabia $55 billion

Japan $54 billion

South Korea $50 billion

Saudi Arabia has the highest spending per GDP at 6.6 %, Japan the lowest at 1.1 % . Most countries spend around 2.5% of their GDP.

The U.S. spending is 38% of global defense spending, China is second at 14%, most others is just under 3%.

It is interesting that the U.S. has never audited the Pentagon for an accounting of this massive spending. One must wonder where is all this money going? Does anyone have any idea? 

I am not questioning that a strong defense is vital for this country. A well equipped military, able to defend the vital interests of this country if needed.

I am questioning were exactly all this money is going? We keep hearing that the military is short on ammunition, rockets and other ammunition. How could this be? Or is the money being spent in the maintenance of bases in 150+ other countries? Grants to other countries to keep them dependent on U.S. protection. 

We hear that the EU countries are now short on ammunition and supplies because of their contributions to Ukraine. Contributions that are to be replaced by the U.S. Are we in fact supplying the world except for China and Russia. If so, it would be good to know by congress and the taxpayers.

We can assume that Russia and China are getting a lot more BANG for their Rubles and Yuan than the U.S. taxpayers are getting for their dollars.

Has Europe's ability to maintain their generous social programs been actually subsidized by the U.S. for providing them with a security umbrella.

Have we intentionally littered the world with expensive weaponry that we left in Viet Nam, Afghanistan and many other countries, claiming it is too expensive to bring home? Just so that we could buy more.

Does all this spending encourage the intervention in other countries disputes just to try out all these new weapons and also dispose of it so more is needed?

While I do support a strong military, it does seem that the U.S. has an oversized budget compared to the rest of the world. Do we in fact provide most of the weapons existing in the world today? If so, is that a concern or something that should be debated?

While a massive undertaking, it is time for some accountability by the defense department as to where all this money is going. Such a budget without ever being audited is an open invitation for severe problems of graft and corruption.