MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘military budget’

The $1 Trillion Military Budget Has Arrived

Posted by M. C. on May 1, 2025

“As Scott Horton says: No matter who you vote for, you always get John McCain.”

https://mailchi.mp/libertarianinstitute/this-week-at-the-libertarian-institute-olhmx6gn9t-5848831-7hv9eay4br-5850218?e=de2d0eded6

-Kyle Anzalone

Republicans in Congress have unveiled plans to hand the White House $1 trillion – that’s 12 zeroes, $1,000,000,000,000 – to spend on the military.

That’s right, despite promised cuts the federal budget and Elon Musk’s lagging “DOGE” initiative – which promised to slash $2 trillion before settling on a far less ambitious $150 billion – Trump is doing the same old thing: pumping vast sums of American tax dollars into the Washington swamp.

Antiwar.com’s Dave DeCamp elaborates on how your money will be wasted:

“House Republicans unveiled a bill this week that would bring the 2025 US military budget to over $1 trillion.

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) totaled about $885 billion, and the new supplemental bill drafted by the House and Senate’s armed services committees would add $150 billion, bringing the 2025 military budget to a record-breaking $1.035 trillion.

The bill includes $25 billion for President Trump’s vision to create a new missile defense system for the United States, which he has called the ‘Iron Dome for America’ or the ‘Golden Dome.’ The project would be a boondoggle for US weapons makers and would likely kick off a new global arms race.

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

The U.S. Will Have Given Ukraine OVER TWO TIMES The Entire Military Budget of Russia!

Posted by M. C. on December 22, 2022

The Ron Paul Liberty Report

https://rumble.com/v21ryyg-the-u.s.-will-have-given-ukraine-over-two-times-the-entire-military-budget-.html

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

When Your Government Ends A War But Increases The Military Budget, You’re Being Scammed

Posted by M. C. on December 18, 2021

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/when-your-government-ends-a-war-but

Caitlin Johnstone

The US Senate has passed its National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) military spending bill for the fiscal year of 2022, setting the budget at an astronomical $778 billion by a vote of 89 to 10. The bill has already been passed by the House, now requiring only the president’s signature. An amendment to cease facilitating Saudi Arabia’s atrocities in Yemen was stripped from the bill.

“The most controversial parts of the 2,100-page military spending bill were negotiated behind closed doors and passed the House mere hours after it was made public, meaning members of Congress couldn’t possibly have read the whole thing before casting their votes,” reads a Politico article on the bill’s passage by Lindsay Koshgarian, William Barber II and Liz Theoharis.

The US military had a budget of $14 billion for its scaled-down Afghanistan operations in the fiscal year of 2021, down from $17 billion in 2020. If the US military budget behaved normally, you’d expect it to come down by at least $14 billion in 2022 following the withdrawal of US troops and official end of the war in Afghanistan. Instead, this new $778 billion total budget is a five percent increase from the previous year.

“Months after US President Joe Biden’s administration pulled the last American troops out of Afghanistan as part of his promise to end the country’s ‘forever wars’, the United States Congress approved a $777.7bn defence budget, a five percent increase from last year,” Al Jazeera reports.

“For the last 20 years, we heard that the terrorist threat justified an ever-expanding budget for the Pentagon,” Win Without War executive director Stephen Miles told Al Jazeera. “As the war in Afghanistan has ended and attention has shifted towards China, we’re now hearing that that threat justifies it.”Ali Harb @Harbpeace”For the last 20 years, we heard that the terrorist threat justified an ever-expanding budget for the Pentagon. As the war in Afghanistan has ended and attention has shifted towards China, we’re now hearing that that threat justifies it.” aje.io/f9d44e via @AJEnglishUS military spending grows as policy shifts to ‘prioritise China’Progressive legislators question massive US defence budget, which officials say is necessary amid China competition.aje.ioDecember 16th 202116 Retweets46 Likes

Upon the removal of US troops from Afghanistan, President Biden said the following in August:

“After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan — a cost that researchers at Brown University estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years in Afghanistan — for two decades — yes, the American people should hear this: $300 million a day for two decades. If you take the number of $1 trillion, as many say, that’s still $150 million a day for two decades.  And what have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities?  I refused to continue in a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people.”

You would think a government so grieved over the loss of “opportunities” for the American people due to Afghanistan war spending would be eager to begin allocating that wealth toward providing opportunities to Americans at the end of that war. Instead, more wealth has been diverted to the US war machine.

Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp reports:

See the rest here

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Here Is What Each Of The Pentagon’s Air-Launched Missiles And Bombs Actually Cost – The Drive

Posted by M. C. on February 27, 2020

Building an empire isn’t cheap.

When we bomb a hospital or wedding party it costs a bundle to turn formerly innocent civilians to terrorism.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32277/here-is-what-each-of-the-pentagons-air-launched-missiles-and-bombs-actually-cost

By Joseph Trevithick

Whenever you see pictures of U.S. military combat aircraft, drones, and helicopters deployed on operations overseas, or even just during exercises in the United States or abroad, they’re often loaded down with various missiles and other precision-guided munitions. It’s no secret that the United States spends a lot on defense, but how much do each of these various weapons actually cost?

The individual prices of various air-launched munitions is an interesting and important thing to consider, especially given how many of them the U.S. military expends each year. In 2019 alone, American military aircraft, manned and unmanned, employed 7,423 munitions of various types in Afghanistan and another 4,729 in Iraq and Syria, according to official data. This year, already, they’ve expended 415 and 68 weapons in those same areas, respectively.

Here Are The Pentagon’s “Tough Choice” Cuts To Airpower As Part Of Its 2021 BudgetBy Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
The AIM-9X Sidewinder May Finally Evolve Into A Completely New And Longer-Range MissileBy Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
Navy To Greatly Expand P-8 Poseidon’s Mission With New Missiles, Mines, Bombs, And DecoysBy Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
Everything We Know About America’s Sword Blade Hellfire Missile And Its Latest TargetBy Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
Congress Poised To Cancel Non-Nuclear Version Of Air Force’s Future Stealth Cruise MissileBy Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone

The War Zone has collected the latest unit costs of many of the Pentagon’s air-launched weapons to give readers a sense of just how much it is spending to arm its fleets of combat aircraft. It should be stressed that these are the prices for just the individual weapons and do not factor in any future spending on support services, modifications, or upgrades. Some may be surprised, or even a bit mortified, at just how expensive some of these weapons are.

USAF

It’s also important to note that unit prices fluctuate, wildly so in some cases, depending on various factors, including the economies of scale from buying larger lots. What this means is that different services may actually end up paying different amounts for the same weapons. A single service might also find itself paying different amounts for the same munitions in the base budget and the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget, especially if the size of the various orders are significantly different.

The Department of the Navy is responsible for the Marine Corps’ budget, as well. So, the unit prices that the Navy pays also apply to purchases of certain munitions destined for the Marine Corps, too.

USN

What follows are the unit prices, rounded to the nearest dollar, that the various branches of the U.S. military expect to pay for various air-launched weapons in the 2021 Fiscal Year as they appear in the official budget documents.

Air-to-Air Missiles:

  • AIM-9X Sidewinder (Air Force) – $472,000
  • AIM-9X Sidewinder (Navy) – $430,818
    • These unit prices are averages for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year orders for both services, which include lots of AIM-9X-2 Block II and AIM-9X-3 Block II+ missiles, the latter of which is specifically for variants F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
  • AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air To Air Missile (AMRAAM) (Air Force)- $1.095 million
  • AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air To Air Missile (AMRAAM) (Navy)- $995,018

Air-to-Surface Missiles:

  • AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) (Navy) – $6.149 million
  • AGM-114 Hellfire (Air Force) – $70,000
    • This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include a variety of Hellfire missiles in Air Force service, including, but not limited to the AGM-114R2, AGM-114R4, AGM-114R9E, and AGM-114R12.
    • This is also the unit price for orders in the base budget. The Air Force is also looking to purchase a much larger number of AGM-114 variants through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost $31,000.
  • AGM-114 Hellfire (Army) – $213,143
    • This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include a variety of Hellfire missiles in Army service, including various different variants of the AGM-114R, as well as the millimeter-wave radar-guided AGM-114L.
    • This is also the unit price for orders in the base budget. The Army is also looking to purchase a much larger number of AGM-114R variants through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost $76,461.
  • AGM-114 Hellfire (Navy) – $45,409
    • This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include a variety of Hellfire missiles in Navy and Marine Corps service, including, but not limited to the AGM-114K/K2, AGM-114M, AGM-114N, AGM-114P/P2, and AGM-114Q.
  • AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) (Air Force) – $1.266 million
    • This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which includes examples of the AGM-158A JASSM and AGM-158B JASSM-Extended Range (JASSM-ER).
    • The Air Force also expects the complete 2021 Fiscal Year JASSM order will also include the purchase of the first batch of low rate initial production AGM-158D JASSM-Extreme Range (JASSM-XR) missiles.
  • AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) (Air Force) – $3.960 million
  • AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) (Navy) – $3.518 million
  • AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) (Army) – $324,805
  • AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) (Navy) – $243,281

Precision-Guided Bombs:

  • GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) (Air Force) – $39,000
    • This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include the GBU-39A/B Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) variants, which has a special carbon fiber body intended to reduce the chance of collateral damage, and GBU-39B/B Laser SDBs.
  • GBU-53/B StormBreaker/Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) (Air Force) – $195,000
  • GBU-53/B StormBreaker/Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) (Navy) – $220,916
  • Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) (Air Force) – $21,000
  • Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) (Navy) – $22,208
    • These are the unit prices for orders in the base budget. The Air Force is also looking to purchase a much smaller number of JDAM kits through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost of $36,000. The Navy is also looking to purchase a smaller number of JDAM kits through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost of $23,074.
    • These unit prices are also averages for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year orders for both services and apply to the JDAM guidance kits only for 500, 1,000, and 2,000-pound class bombs.
    • This unit price average also includes multi-mode Laser JDAM kits.
    • The different JDAM guidance kits will work with a wide variety of different dumb bomb types within those classes, but some, such as the new BLU-137/B 2,000-pound class bunker buster, require certain weapon-specific modifications that impact the specific price point.
    • Per the Air Force budget, a standard, unguided Mk 82 500-pound class bomb has a unit price of $4,000, while 2,000-pound class Mk 84 unguided bombs cost $16,000 apiece.

It’s important to note that a number of air-launched munitions that are in active service across the U.S. military, such as the AGM-65E Maverick laser-guided missiles, AGM-154 Joint Stand Off Weapon (JSOW) glide bombs, AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles, and Paveway laser and multi-mode guidance kits for various types of bombs, are not mentioned above. This is because the services are not planning to buy new stocks of them in the 2021 Fiscal Year or they are included include broader sections of the budget where their exact unit cost is not readily apparent. There are requests for funds for sustainment of many of those weapons, as well as modifications and upgrades, too. The Navy is notably expecting to begin purchasing a powered derivative of the AGM-154, known as the JSOW-Extended Range (JSOW-ER), in the 2022 Fiscal Year.

Regardless, now, the next time you see a U.S. military combat aircraft, drone or helicopter, you’ll have a head start figuring out just how much its loadout of bombs and missiles actually cost.

Be seeing you

Bankster

Bankster

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

How Do You Justify a $750 Billion Budget? – Antiwar.com Original

Posted by M. C. on April 9, 2019

Threat Inflation

https://original.antiwar.com/william_astore/2019/04/08/how-do-you-justify-a-750-billion-budget/

by

…Throughout my life, the US“defense” establishment has consistently inflated the dangers presented by foreign powers, which brings me to the current Pentagon budget for 2020, which may reach $750 billion. How to justify such an immense sum? A large dollop of threat inflation might help…

With the Islamic State allegedly defeated in Syria and other terrorist forces more nuisances than existential threats, with the Afghan War apparently winding down (only 14,000 US troops are deployed there) and with Trump professing a “love” fest with Kim Jong-un, where are today’s (and tomorrow’s) big threats? Iran isn’t enough. The only threats that seem big enough to justify colossal military spending are Russia and China. Hence the new “cold war” we keep hearing about, which drives a “requirement” for big spending on lucrative weapons systems like new aircraft carriers, new fighters and bombers, newer and better nuclear warheads and missiles, and so forth.

Which brings me to the alleged Russian collusion story involving Trump. As we now know, the Mueller Report found no collusion, but was that really the main point of the investigation and all the media hysteria? The latter succeeded in painting Vladimir Putin and the Russians as enemies in pursuit of the death of American democracy. Meanwhile Trump, who’d campaigned with some idea of a rapprochement with Russia, was driven by the investigation to take harsher stances against Russia, if only to prove he wasn’t a “Putin puppet.” The result: most Americans today see Russia as a serious threat, even though the Russians spend far less on wars and weaponry than the US does.

Threat inflation is nothing new, of course. Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized it and did his best to control it in the 1950s, but even Ike had only limited success. Other presidents, lacking Ike’s military experience and gravitas, have most frequently surrendered to the Complex. The last president who tried with some consistency to control the Complex was Jimmy Carter, but the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iranian hostage crisis, and his own political fortunes drove him to launch a major military buildup, which was then accelerated by Reagan until the collapse of the Soviet Union…

Today, faced with a debilitating national debt of $22 trillion and infrastructure that’s aptly described as “crumbling,” you’d think US leaders would finally seek a peace dividend to lower our debt and rebuild our roads, bridges, dams, and related infrastructure. But the Complex (including Congress, of course) is addicted to war and weapons spending, aided as ever by threat inflation and its close cousin, fearmongering about invading aliens at the border.

And there you have it: a $750 billion military budget sucking up more than sixty percent of discretionary spending by the federal government. As Ike said, this is no way to live humanely, but it is a way for humanity to hang from a cross of iron.

Be seeing you

America's sport

Government’s favorite sport-War

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »