Military Budget of US is a part of the Federal Budget that comes under discretionary spending and is allotted for the Defense Department of USA. The amount of fund that is allotted for the military is spent on the various factors pertaining to the defense department. The remuneration of the soldiers, their training costs are borne by this budget. The defense also needs to maintain its equipment, arms and ammunitions, take care of the present operations, develop new ways to raise the security measure and finally purchase new machineries. The defense requires a lump sum to fulfill all these needs and that is provided by the military budget.
Changes in US Military Budget in 2007
The amount allotted to the defense department of USA was raised to $532.8million during the fiscal year 2007. However, this budget does not provide any amount of fund for those items which are used for defending the country but are outside the purview of military department. These items include nuclear weapons, other types of energy production that might be used for the defense of the country. The sudden outbreak of wars also pose a difficult situation before the government. The budget does not really make allowance for the sudden war time conditions. For instance the war in Iraq was not funded by the budget but they had to make arrangements for extra funds outside the military budget.
Special Feature of the US Military Budget
The US Military Budget very strangely allows some amount of money to be used for purposes other than maintaining the defense army. The development of the areas surrounding the defense camp is done with the funds alloted by the military budget.
Military Budget for the year 2007
For the fiscal year 2007 the military budget was prepared and various amounts of money alloted to different areas within the military department. The allotment of money is given below:
- For Military Personnel the amount was $110.8million
- For Operations and Maintenance the amount was $152.2million
- For Arms Procurement the amount was $84.2million
- For Military Construction the amount was $12.6million
- For Research and Development the amount was $73.2million
- For Housing the amount alloted was $4.1million
- Working Capital Stock was $2.4million
A lump sum is spent for the various procurement programs which was estimated at $1 billion during the year 2007.
Comparison of US Military Budget with Other Countries
The money alloted to the US military department is eight times more than that alloted to the military of China. The US Defense Budget is reportedly more than the combined budget of 16 other developed countries. The fund alloted to military in US makes more than half the federal discretionary expenditure. It forms 3.7% of the GDP of US economy. Though the highest record is about 9.4% of the GDP during the Vietnam War. However, during the war in Afghanistan the US arranged for funds outside the military budget.