U.S. pays a third more for defense as in 2001: Military still same size and structure

news.yahoo.com...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has essentially the same size, force structure and capabilities as it did a decade ago but costs 35 percent more, an independent public policy think tank said on Monday in an analysis of the 2012 defense budget.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in a 75-page report, also said the Defense Department had spent some $46 billion over the past decade developing weapons systems that were ultimately never fielded, either due to cost overruns or technical challenges.

As a result, a significant portion of the Pentagon's effort to modernize its weapons systems did not result in force modernization, a task that will now have to be undertaken at a time of shrinking defense budgets

If this article is correct, then the US military is pretty much the same as it was 10 years ago, but now it costs about a third more. I wonder why that is? Maybe because we are at war in a few different countries? (Im not sure how much the wars cost in the defense budget, but the article touches on the war part later on in the article)

"This was the opportunity of the decade, to really recapitalize and modernize the military's equipment and that has been squandered," said Todd Harrison, who authored the report. "We're looking at the prospect of a declining defense budget over the next decade and we're not going to have the opportunity to do that again."

It looks like, atleast according to the article, that some of the equipment is going to need to be replaced soon. I wonder how much that will cost.

At the same time, the military faces significant capital equipment requirements in the coming years, from replacing aging aircraft carriers and building a new generation of submarines to fielding the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and funding a new line of aerial refueling tankers.

What will the military do? Cut some of the forces, or continue keeping them, and slow down "modernization"?

That puts the Pentagon in the position of having to make difficult choices about whether to cut force structure -- like the number of aircraft squadrons or carrier strike groups -- in order to free up money for modernization, he said.

Ive thought that the US already had the most modernized military at the moment?

The center's analysis said half of the growth in defense spending over the past decade was unrelated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was attributable instead to a rise in the Pentagon's base budget.

Im not really sure how the spending is unrelated to the wars. Ill have to think about that one for awhile.

This part of the article says some of the places where spending increased.

Personnel costs grew by 19 percent, even as overall personnel numbers remained relatively flat, the report said. The cost of peacetime operations rose 10 percent, even as the pace of operations declined. And acquisition costs rose 16 percent, even as the inventory of equipment aged and shrank.

Inflation / devalued dollar = higher coast

This video may interest you a little bit. If it turned out to be true, which i dont know, she seems legit. So, maybe.

The wars are probably the biggest reason for the increase. It costs alot to keep the militray going while in conflict instead of just peacetime activities.

And everything probably costs more like the above poster mentioned.

^that is why^ We probably increased the scope of the military in the "robot killers" sector over the last 10 years to make up for the missing 5 or so percent.

Are they factoring in the billions we throw at private contractors such as Blackwater (oh, I'm sorry, I mean 'Xe' or whatever they're calling themselves these days )

reply to post by buni11687




Hmmmmm.........when the U.S. constantly sends reserve and National Guard personnel and equipment to do the job that most people consider to be active duty personnel activities, yeah, the cost rises for that, as well.

reply to post by buni11687


Modernization comes to mind. We phased out the F-14 Tomcat and replaced it with the F-18 Superhornets.

We also went from like 6 aircraft carriers to 11 with a few more being built.

Not to mention 2 1/2 wars we are paying for.

You fool, don't you realize that if we spend just $100 less in defense Al-Queda will instantly attack us and kill us all???