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The United States military budget is that portion of the United States discretionary federal budget that is allocated for the funding of the Department of Defense. This military budget finances employee salaries and training costs, the maintenance of equipment and facilities, support of new or ongoing operations, and development and procurement of new equipment. The budget includes funding for all branches of the military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

For 2007, the budget was raised to a total of US$532.8 Billion.^[1] This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance and production (which is in the Department of Energy budget), Veterans Affairs or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which are largely funded through extra-budgetary supplements, e.g. $120 Billion in 2007).^[2] Conversely, the military budget does include a certain amount of spending that is of dual-use nature; for instance, infrastructure development for areas around US military bases within the United States often fall under the military budget.^{[citation needed]}

The federally budgeted (see below) military expenditure of the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2007^[3] is:

Further, the Department of Energy will spend an additional $23.4 Billion during FY2007 for the development, maintenance and production of nuclear warheads.^[4]

The $84.1 billion procurement budget consists of several notable programs with budgets of over $1 billion per year. This distribution changes greatly from year to year as programs are phased in and out. The "Percentage Change" below refers to the percentage change from 2007 to 2008.

Military spending as a percentage of GDP

A comparison of the budgets for the world's greatest military spenders. Note that this comparison is done in nominal value US dollars and thus is not adjusted for purchasing power parity. The current (2005) United States military budget is larger than the military budgets of the next fourteen biggest spenders combined, and over eight times larger than the official military budget of China. The United States and its close allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the US is responsible for the majority). Military spending accounts for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary spending, which is all of the U.S. government's money that is not used for pre-existing obligations.^[6]

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2003 the United States spent approximately 47% of the world's total military spending of US$910.6 billion.

As percentage of its GDP, the United states spends 3.7% on military. This is higher than France's 2.6%, and lower than Saudi Arabia's 10%.^[7] This is historically low for the United States since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP. Even during the peak of the Vietnam War the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968.^[8]

Because the U.S. GDP has risen over time, the military budget can rise in absolute terms while shrinking as a percentage of the GDP. For example, according to the Center for Defense Information, the US outlays for defense as a percentage of federal discretionary spending, has from Fiscal Year 2003 consumed more than half (50.5%) of all such funding and has risen steadily.^[9] Discretionary spending accounts for approximately 1/3 of all federal outlays.^[10] Therefore, comparing nominal dollar values of military spending over the course of decades fails to account for the impact of inflationary forces, for which military spending as a percentage of GDP does account.

The recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are largely funded through supplementary spending bills outside the Federal Budget, so they are not included in the military budget figures listed above.^[11] In addition, the United States has black budget military spending which is not listed as Federal spending and is not included in published military spending figures. Other military-related items, like maintenance of the nuclear arsenal and the money spent by the Veterans Affairs Department, are not included in the official budget. Thus, the total amount spent by the United States on military spending is higher.

1. ^ http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2007/
2. ^ Robert Higgs. The Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget Is Already Here. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
3. ^ http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2006/d20060206slides.pdf page 19
4. ^ http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/archives/002238.php
5. ^ Department of Defense: 2006-2008 Program Acquisition Costs by Weapon System
6. ^ World Military Spending. Global Issues That Affect Everyone (2006-03-27). Retrieved on 2006-07-13.
7. ^ CIA World Factbook. Rank Order - Military expenditures percent of GDP. Retrieved on 2006-05-26.
8. ^ Relative Size of US Military Spending from 1940 to 2003. TruthAndPolitics.org.
9. ^ Fiscal Year 2002 Budget. Center for Defense Information. Retrieved on 2006-07-13.
10. ^ http://www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/budget/restrain/update/update.htm
11. ^ David Isenberg, Budgeting for Empire: The effect of Iraq and Afghanistan on Military Forces, Budgets and Plans

• TheBudgetGraph.com A large representation graph and poster of the 2008 federal discretionary budget including the military budget.

• "Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)" Annual Department of Defense budget materials.

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