From 1998 until this year, the Pentagon’s annual budget went from $361 billion to $697 billion—and yet, two branches of the military actually shrunk in size during this period.

 

In 1998, the U.S. Navy had 333 warships; today, it has 287, a decline of 14%. The U.S. Air Force (including the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve) went from 108 squadrons of fighters and bombers in 1998 to 72 in 2010, a decline of 33%.

 

Of the more than $2 trillion consumed by the Defense Department from 1998-2010, $1.1 trillion was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and $1.03 trillion went for new military hardware, weapons systems and other needs not related to the current wars.

 

The Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) faults the Pentagon’s procurement priorities during the 1990s for investing in “backward looking” weapons rooted in Cold War programs and concerns. This resulted in the military having to spend even more on research and development post-2001 in order to modernize forces to fight the war on terror.

 

The PDA report also notes that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been “labor-intensive,” forcing the Department of Defense to recruit and retain large numbers of personnel. Since 2001, the number of full-time military personnel has risen only 2%, but spending on them has skyrocketed by 50%.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

$1 Trillion Bought Older, Smaller Forces; Fix it, Mr. Gates (by Winslow Wheeler, DoD Buzz)

Trillions to Burn? A Quick Guide to the Surge in Pentagon Spending (by Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives)

An Undisciplined Defense (by Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives)