Military budget of the United States

As of 10 March 2023 the fiscal year 2024 (FY2024) presidential budget request was $842 billion.[lower-alpha 1] In January 2023 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the US government would hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on 19 January 2023;[13] the date on which the US government would no longer be able to use extraordinary measures such as issuance of Treasury securities is estimated to be in June 2023.[14] On 3 June 2023, the debt ceiling was suspended until 2025.[15] The $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act is facing reconciliation of the House and Senate bills after passing both houses 27 July 2023; the conferees have to be chosen, next.[16][17][18] As of September 2023, a Continuing resolution is needed to prevent a Government shutdown.[19][20][21] A shutdown was avoided on 30 September for 45 days (until 17 November 2023).[22][23]

As of March 2022, the defense department was operating under a continuing resolution,[24] which constrains spending even though DoD has to respond to world events, such as the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine;[24][25][5][6] the FY2023 defense budget request will exceed $773 billion, according to the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.[26] By 9 March 2022 a bipartisan agreement on a $782 billion defense budget had been reached (as part of an overall $1.5 trillion budget for FY2022 – thus avoiding a government shutdown).[27]

As of 4 April 2022 the FY2023 presidential budget request of $773 billion included $177.5 billion for the Army,[28][29] $194 billion for the Air Force and Space Force,[30] and $230.8 billion for the Navy and Marine Corps (up 4.1% from FY2022 request).[31] As of 12 December 2022 the House and Senate versions of the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act (FY2023 NDAA) were to be $839 billion, and $847 billion, for the HASC, and SASC respectively, for a compromise $857.9 billion top line.[32] By 16 December 2022 the current budget extension resolution will have expired.[33] The President signed the FY2023 Appropriations bill on 23 December 2022.[34]

US military spending in 2021 reached $801 billion per year according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In May 2021, the President's defense budget request for FY2022 was $715 billion, up $10 billion from the $705 billion FY2021 request.[35] The total FY2022 defense budget request, including the Department of Energy, was $753 billion, up $12 billion from FY2021's request.[35][36] On 22 July 2021 the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a budget $25 billion greater than the President's request.[37][38][4] The National Defense Authorization Act, budgeting $740 billion for defense, was signed 27 December 2021.[39]

By military department,[40][41][42] the Army's portion of the budget request, $173 billion, dropped $3.6 billion from the enacted FY2021 budget;[43][44][45] the Department of the Navy's portion of the budget request, $211.7 billion, rose 1.8% from the enacted FY2021 budget, largely due to a 6% increase for the Marine Corps' restructuring into a littoral combat force (Navy request: $163.9 billion, or just 0.6% over FY2021, Marine Corps request: $47.9 billion, a 6.2% increase over FY2021);[46] the Air Force's $156.3 billion request for FY2022 is a 2.3% increase over FY2021 enacted budget; the Space Force budget of $17.4 billion is a 13.1% increase over FY2021 enacted budget.[47] Overseas contingency operations (OCOs) are now replaced by "direct war and enduring costs", which are now migrated into the budget.[41] After the release of the FY2022 budget requests to Congress, the military departments also posted their Unfunded priorities/requirements lists for the Congressional Armed Services Committees.[48][49][50][51][52]

For FY2021, the Department of Defense's discretionary budget authority was approximately $705.39 billion ($705,390,000,000). Mandatory spending of $10.77 billion, the Department of Energy and defense-related spending of $37.335 billion added up to the total FY2021 Defense budget of $753.5 billion.[36] FY2021 was the last year for OCOs as shown by the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) investments for the future are offset by the OCO cuts, and by reduced procurement of legacy materiel.[35][53]

For fiscal year 2020 (FY2020), the Department of Defense's budget authority was approximately $721.5 billion ($721,531,000,000). Approximately $712.6 billion is discretionary spending with approximately $8.9 billion in mandatory spending. The Department of Defense estimates that $689.6 billion ($689,585,000,000) will actually be spent (outlays).[54] Both left-wing and right-wing commentators have advocated for the cutting of military spending.[55][56][57][58]

For FY2019, the Department of Defense's budget authority was $693,058,000,000 (including discretionary and mandatory budget authority).[59]

As of 2013, the Department of Defense was the third largest executive branch department and utilized 20% of the federal budget.

For the 2011 fiscal year, the president's base budget for the Department of Defense and spending on overseas contingency operations totaled $664.84 billion.[68][69]

When the budget was signed into law on 28 October 2009, the final size of the Department of Defense's budget was $680 billion, $16 billion more than President Obama had requested.[70] An additional $37 billion supplemental bill to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was expected to pass in the spring of 2010, but has been delayed by the House of Representatives after passing the Senate.[71][72]

By title

US 2010 military budget spending

The federally budgeted (see below) military expenditure of the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2013 is as follows. While data is provided from the 2015 budget, data for 2014 and 2015 is estimated, and thus data is shown for the last year for which definite data exists (2013).[76]

Components	Funding	Change, 2012 to 2013
Operations and maintenance	$258.277 billion	−9.9%
Military personnel	$153.531 billion	−3.0%
Procurement	$97.757 billion	−17.4%
Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation	$63.347 billion	−12.1%
Military construction	$8.069 billion	−29.0%
Family housing	$1.483 billion	−12.2%
Other miscellaneous costs	$2.775 billion	−59.5%
Atomic energy defense activities	$17.424 billion	−4.8%
Defense-related activities	$7.433 billion	−3.8%
Total spending	$610.096 billion	−10.5%

Budget request for FY2017

Appropriated 2016 budget and proposed 2017 budget

The currently available budget request for 2017 was filed on 9 February 2016,[88][89] under then-President Barack Obama.

The press release of the proposal specifies the structure and goals for the FY2017 budget:[88]

The FY2017 budget reflects recent strategic threats and changes that have taken place in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Russian aggression, terrorism by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and others, and China's island building and claims of sovereignty in international waters all necessitate changes in our strategic outlook and in our operational commitments. Threats and actions originating in Iran and North Korea negatively affect our interests and our allies. These challenges have sharpened the focus of our planning and budgeting.

The proposal also includes a comparison of the 2016 and the proposed 2017 request amounts, a summary of acquisitions requested for 2017 and enacted in 2016, and provides in detail a breakdown of specific programs to be funded.

Budget by year

Defense Spending as a Percent of GDP 1792–2017

Historical defense spending

The accompanying graphs show that US military spending as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) peaked during World War II.

The table shows historical spending on defense from 1996 to 2022, spending for 2023–2024 is estimated.[97] The defense budget is shown in billions of dollars and total budget in trillions of dollars. The percentage of the total US federal budget spent on defense is indicated in the third row, and change in defense spending from the previous year in the final row.

Historical defense spending 1996–2024
Year	Defense budget (billions)	Total budget (trillions)	Defense budget %	Defense spending % change
2024	$910	$7.05	12.9	+0.6
2023	$905	$6.56	13.8	+8.0
2022	$838	$6.58	12.7	+10.4
2021	$759	$7.14	10.6	−1.9
2020	$774	$7.73	10.0	+3.9
2019	$745	$4.70	15.9	+2.6
2018	$726	$4.46	16.3	+10.7
2017	$656	$4.15	15.8	+5.1
2016	$624	$3.97	15.7	+4.3
2015	$598	$3.77	15.9	−3.9
2014	$622	$3.61	17.2	+2.0
2013	$610	$3.48	17.5	−10.5
2012	$681	$3.58	19.1	−5.0
2011	$717	$3.51	20.4	−0.6
2010	$721	$3.48	20.7	+3.4
2009	$698	$4.08	17.1	+0.2
2008	$696	$3.32	20.9	+11.3
2007	$625	$2.86	21.9	+12.5
2006	$556	$2.78	20.0	+10.0
2005	$506	$2.58	19.6	+3.1
2004	$491	$2.41	20.4	+7.6
2003	$456	$2.27	20.1	+26.0
2002	$362	$2.09	17.3	+8.2
2001	$335	$1.96	17.1	+10.1
2000	$304	$1.82	16.7	+4.0
1999	$292	$1.78	16.4	+7.8
1998	$271	$1.69	16.0	+0.2
1997	$270	$1.64	16.5	+1.6
1996	$266	$1.58	16.8	−0.1

The role of support service contractors has increased since 2001 and in 2007 payments for contractor services exceeded investments in equipment for the armed forces for the first time.[98] In the 2010 budget, the support service contractors will be reduced from the current 39 percent of the workforce down to the pre-2001 level of 26 percent.[99] In a Pentagon review of January 2011, service contractors were found to be "increasingly unaffordable."[100]

CBO Infographic showing 2022 federal spending

The Department of Defense budget accounted in FY2017 for about 14.8% of federal budgeted expenditures. According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average in fiscal years 2000–2009.[101]

Because of constitutional limitations, military funding is appropriated in a discretionary spending account. (Such accounts permit government planners to have more flexibility to change spending each year, as opposed to mandatory spending accounts that mandate spending on programs in accordance with the law, outside of the budgetary process.) In recent years, discretionary spending as a whole has amounted to about one-third of total federal outlays.[102] Department of Defense spending's share of discretionary spending was 50.5% in 2003, and has risen to between 53% and 54% in recent years.[103]

For FY2017, Department of Defense spending amounts to 3.42% of GDP. Because the US GDP has grown over time, the military budget can rise in absolute terms while shrinking as a percentage of the GDP. For example, the Department of Defense budget was slated to be $664 billion in 2010 (including the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan previously funded through supplementary budget legislation[104][105]), higher than at any other point in American history, but still 1.1–1.4% lower as a percentage of GDP than the amount spent on military during the peak of Cold-War military spending in the late 1980s.[106] Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called four percent an "absolute floor".[107] This calculation does not take into account some other military-related non-DoD spending, such as Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and interest paid on debt incurred in past wars, which has increased even as a percentage of the national GDP.

In 2015, Pentagon and related spending totaled $598 billion.

In addition, the US will spend at least $179 billion over the fiscal years of 2010–2018 on its nuclear arsenal, averaging $20 billion per year. Despite President Barack Obama's attempts in the media to reduce the scope of the current nuclear arms race, the US intends to spend an additional $1 trillion over the next 30 years modernizing its nuclear arsenal.

In September 2017 the Senate followed President Donald Trump's plan to expand military spending, which will boost spending to $700 billion, about 91.4% of which will be spent on maintaining the armed forces and primary Pentagon costs.[108] Military spending is increasing regularly and more money is being spent every year on employee pay, operation and maintenance, and benefits including health benefits. Methods to counteract rapidly increasing spending include shutting down bases, but that was banned by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.[109]

As of September 2014, the Department of Defense was estimated to have "$857 million in excess parts and supplies". This figure has risen over the past years, and of the Pentagon waste that has been calculated, two figures are especially worth mentioning: the expenditure of "$150 million on private villas for a handful of Pentagon employees in Afghanistan and the procurement of the JLENS air-defense balloon" which, throughout the program's development over the past two decades, is estimated to have cost $2.7 billion.[110]

A pie chart showing global military expenditures by country for 2019, in US$ billions, according to SIPRI

Map of military expenditures as a percentage of GDP by country, 2017[111]

The US spends more on national defense than China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil combined.[112] The 2018 US military budget accounts for approximately 36% of global arms spending (for comparison, US GDP is only 24% of global GDP[113]). The 2018 budget is approximately 2.5 times larger than the $250 billion military budget of China. The US and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's military spending (of which, in turn, the US is responsible for the majority).[114][115][116] The US also maintains the largest number of military bases on foreign soil in the world.[117] While there are no freestanding foreign bases permanently located in the US, there are now around 800 US bases in foreign countries. Military spending makes up nearly 16% of entire federal spending and approximately half of discretionary spending. In a general sense discretionary spending (defense and non-defense spending) makes up one-third of the annual federal budget.[118]

In 2015, out of its budget of $3.97 trillion, the US spent $637 billion on the military.

In 2016, the US spent 3.29% of its GDP on its military (considering only basic Department of Defense budget spending), more than France's 2.26% and less than Saudi Arabia's 9.85%.[119] This is historically low for the US since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP (it reached the lowest point of 3.0% in 1999–2001). Even during the peak of the Vietnam War the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968.[120]

In 2018, the US spent 3.2% of its GDP on its military, while Saudi Arabia spent 8.8%, Israel spent 4.3%, Pakistan spent 4.0%, Russia spent 3.9%, South Korea spent 2.6%, China spent 1.9%, United Kingdom spent 1.8%, and Germany spent 1.2% of its GDP on defense.[121][122]

The US military's budget has plateaued in 2009, but is still considerably larger than any other military power.[123]

In 2009 Robert Gates, then Secretary of Defense, wrote that the US should adjust its priorities and spending to address the changing nature of threats in the world: "What all these potential adversaries—from terrorist cells to rogue nations to rising powers—have in common is that they have learned that it is unwise to confront the United States directly on conventional military terms. The United States cannot take its current dominance for granted and needs to invest in the programs, platforms, and personnel that will ensure that dominance's persistence. But it is also important to keep some perspective. As much as the US Navy has shrunk since the end of the Cold War, for example, in terms of tonnage, its battle fleet is still larger than the next 13 navies combined—and 11 of those 13 navies are US allies or partners."[124] Secretary Gates announced some of his budget recommendations in April 2009.[125]

According to a 2009 Congressional Research Service report there was a discrepancy between a budget that is declining as a percentage of GDP while the responsibilities of the DoD have not decreased and additional pressures on the military budget have arisen due to broader missions in the post-9/11 world, dramatic increases in personnel and operating costs, and new requirements resulting from wartime lessons in the Iraq War and Operation Enduring Freedom.[126]

Expenses for fiscal years 2001 through 2010 were analyzed by Russell Rumbaugh, a retired Army officer and ex-CIA military analyst, in a report for the Stimson Center.[127] Rumbaugh wrote: "Between 1981 and 1990, the Air Force bought 2,063 fighters. In contrast, between 2001 and 2010, it bought only 220. Yet between 2001 and 2010 the Air Force spent $38B of procurement funding just on fighter aircraft in inflation-adjusted dollars, compared with the $68B it spent between 1981 and 1990. In other words, the Air Force spent 55 percent as much money to get 10 percent as many fighters." As Adam Weinstein explained one of the report's findings: "Of the roughly $1 trillion spent on gadgetry since 9/11, 22 percent of it came from supplemental war funding – annual outlays that are voted on separately from the regular defense budget."[128]

Most of the $5 billion in budget cuts for 2013 that were mandated by Congress in 2012 really only shifted expenses from the general military budget to the Afghanistan war budget. Declaring that nearly 65,000 troops were temporary rather than part of the permanent forces resulted in the reallocation of $4 billion in existing expenses to this different budget.[129]

Anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., 20 March 2010

In May 2012, as part of Obama's East Asia "pivot", his 2013 national military request moved funding from the Army and Marines to favor the Navy, but Congress has resisted this.[130]

Reports emerged in February 2014 that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was planning to trim the defense budget by billions of dollars. The secretary in his first defense budget planned to limit pay rises, increase fees for healthcare benefits, freeze the pay of senior officers, reduce military housing allowances, and reduce the size of the force.

In July 2014, American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Auslin opined in the National Review that the Air Force needs to be fully funded as a priority, due to the air superiority, global airlift, and long-range strike capabilities it provides.[131]

In January 2015 Defense Department published its internal study on how to save $125 billion on its military budget from 2016 to 2020 by renegotiating vendor contracts and pushing for stronger deals, and by offering workers early retirement and retraining.[132]

The GAO was unable to provide an audit opinion on the 2010 financial statements of the US government due to "widespread material internal control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations."[92] The GAO cited as the principal obstacle to its provision of an audit opinion "serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense that made its financial statements unauditable."[92]

In FY2011, seven out of 33 DoD reporting entities received unqualified audit opinions.[141] Under Secretary of Defense Robert F. Hale acknowledged enterprise-wide weaknesses with controls and systems.[142] Further management discussion in the FY2011 DoD Financial Report states "we are not able to deploy the vast numbers of accountants that would be required to reconcile our books manually".[141] Congress has established a deadline of FY2017 for the DoD to achieve audit readiness.[143]

For FYs 1998-2010 the Department of Defense's financial statements were either unauditable or such that no audit opinion could be expressed.[144][145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155] Several years behind other government agencies, the first results from an army of about 2,400 contracted DoD auditors are expected on 15 November 2018.[156]

• Stiglitz, Joseph E.; Bilmes, Linda J. (2008). The Three Trillion Dollar War: The true cost of the Iraq conflict (1st. ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & company. ISBN 9780393067019.

• US Government Defense Spending History with Charts - a www.usgovernmentspending.com briefing (archived)