A Look at the Annual United States Defense Budget

 During the fiscal year of 2021, the United States spent approximately $754 billion on national defense programs. This figure represents 11 percent of the national budget. In addition, defense spending accounted for 15 percent of the national budget in the four previous fiscal years, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced federal leaders to reallocate funds.

Even with the reduction in spending, the United States spends far more on defense than any other G7 nation, a collection of the seven largest economies in the world. When viewing defense spending as a percentage of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), America leads the world at about 3.5 percent. The United Kingdom ranks second at just over 2 percent, while Japan's defense spending is less than 1 percent of GDP.

In terms of raw numbers, China ranks second in the world despite an estimated defense budget of 237 billion, with less than one-third of America's defense spending despite China supporting a population of over 1.4 billion, compared to the US population of just under 340 million. Moreover, no other G7 country ranks among the world's top six largest defense budgets, while the United States budget is higher than the next nine largest budgets combined.

America's defense budget is one of the largest on earth and one of the world's single most expensive government programs. By comparison, Social Security and Medicare spending in America are around $560 and $689 billion annually, respectively. One of the only areas of defense in which the United States is not a world leader in size, with 1.36 million active duty members, America commands the world's third largest military, behind China and India.

Defense spending in America covers several services and government departments. The Department of Defense (DoD) controls the lion's share of the national defense budget, to about $718 billion. Other departments, including the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, utilize the remaining funding for defense-related projects.

More specific areas of spending include $18.5 billion on annual maintenance and repairs and $20.6 billion on the development of ships and submarines. The Virginia-Class series of submarines cost $19.6 billion on their own. Other notable defense projects from the last five years include the F-35 JSF aircraft, at $31.3 billion, and the $21.3 billion DLA direct delivery fuels program.

Exploring spending branch by branch is another way to contextualize defense spending in America. For example, the Army's fiscal year 2023 budget request was $177 billion, compared to $230 and $234 billion requests by the Navy and Air Force, respectively.

The United States' defense budget changes for a myriad of reasons each year. For example, when President Joe Biden took office, he announced his intentions to focus defense spending on nuclear modernization and research and development while minimizing the emphasis on Army troops, partly by lowering the retirement age. In addition, a variety of external events can also influence the defense budget. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, the defense budget included more than $11 billion to produce vaccine BNT162b2.