Our Defense budget is $600 billion. How large of a military budget do we "need"? Are we massively underfunded?

MAJ Bryan Zeski — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 18:43:13 -0500

Response by MSgt Ken "Airsoldier" Collins-Hardy made Feb 24 at 2017 6:44 PM

MSgt Ken "Airsoldier" Collins-Hardy — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 18:44:32 -0500

Thanks for sharing!

Response by SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2017 7:33 PM

SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 19:33:33 -0500

Not underfunded, but like you said... needless/useless spending.

Response by MSgt Steven Holt, NRP, CCEMT-P made Feb 24 at 2017 7:42 PM

MSgt Steven Holt, NRP, CCEMT-P — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 19:42:17 -0500

I've heard the comment tossed around from a few people..."The US spends as much on it's military as the next five countries combined". That may be true but we're also doing the job of those five countries.

We need to either fund for resupply, refit, and replace or we need to stop being the world's police officer.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 25 at 2017 1:15 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 01:15:06 -0500

Sometimes I wonder if it's not that we need more, but what we're spending it on Sir. I have seen Generals & Admirals in meetings with Congress telling them that the Army & Marines doesn't need anymore of these tanks and Congress shut them down and said they did.

So maybe we just need to re-evaluate what our needs are and make it so can not be tied into contracts as bad as we are for certain equipment.

Also we need to stop getting screwed on our computers, etc. Just because DOD has money doesn't mean we should let the seller screw us over on the price.

Response by COL Charles Williams made Feb 25 at 2017 1:30 AM

COL Charles Williams — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 01:30:12 -0500

Good question. That kinda depends on our National Military and National Security Strategy.
http://www.cfr.org/defense-budget/trends-us-military-spending/p28855

Trends in U.S. Military Spending

Policymakers are currently debating the appropriate level of U.S. military spending given increasingly constrained budgets and the winding down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The following charts present historical trends in U.S. military spending and analyze the forces that may drive it lower.

Response by COL Charles Williams made Feb 25 at 2017 1:31 AM

COL Charles Williams — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 01:31:08 -0500

Or... Try this one... I think we have a lot of fixing to do... Readiness.

http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp

Defense Budget by Country

Defense Budget by country ranked.

Response by Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth made Feb 27 at 2017 2:22 PM

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 14:22:30 -0500

There are two parts to this for me:

1.) Irresponsible spending and no accountability. This happens from the top down. We are building buildings, spaces, coffee bars, buying new computer monitors because the newer ones are bigger etc versus allocating the money for equipment and training. And I mean it, this is from the 5 sided puzzle palace all the way down to the barracks. We spend money at the end of the year because we have to or we won’t get that budgeted amount the next year…what kind of sense does that make??? What they ought to do is reward those who have money left over by allowing them another year to spend the previous year’s money and when it is gone move on to the next year’s budget. That wouldn’t rush people to buy crap to buy crap. We are also forced by law to spend our dollars with certain vendors that provide a "cost savings" when I can get the same stuff at Office Depot or somewhere else for half the price. Those rule need to change.

With major systems acquisition we have requirements creep. I know threats change over the life cycle but most of the main requirements don’t and you build that into your cost model up front. We have major weapons systems with cost overruns that are ridiculous because we change the requirement and put the system down the line several months or years. There is no accountability for this creep as people get promoted out of the Program Office and keep going. There is a lot of savings there to be had in those programs if they are managed right.

2.) We are underfunded as well. Do we need a full up military to charge across the Fulda Gap??? No but we need a sizable military to be able to carry out our nations charges. We aren’t there. When I have one guy or gal now doing the job of 6 or 8 without dated equipment that has to be held together with bubble gum and bail wire to keep running…that is not efficient. We need modernized weapon systems…the Marines and Air Force are cannibalizing parts to keep old airplanes flying…and we need the people to operate and maintain those systems with spare parts. We need programs that take care of families and those are being cut at the expense of operations. We need training dollars that are being cut.
BOTTOM LINE FOR ME: We are underfunded and need more dollars but I do believe we could help ourselves some by how we spend on other programs. We won’t be able to pay our own way but we certainly could help the cause with responsible spending.

Response by SSgt Harvey "Skip" Porter made Feb 18 at 2018 2:13 PM

SSgt Harvey "Skip" Porter — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 14:13:38 -0500

COL Mikel J. Burroughs SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSLSMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" ThomasLTC Stephen F.SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SFC George Smith CPT Jack DurishSSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"PO1 William "Chip" Nagel TSgt Joe C.SP5 Mark Kuzinski Maj Marty Hogan MSG Private RallyPoint Member SSgt Private RallyPoint Member LTC Stephen C. LTC Private RallyPoint Member Capt Seid Waddell Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS Fund the military as needed and most definitely don't under fund programs for Veterans.

Peace!

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 18 at 2018 2:24 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 14:24:42 -0500

Is it true that the Army, Air Force, the Navy in the Marine Corps have 40% of their Aviation assets grounded due to lack of spare parts not to mention for a shortage of Pilots?

I guess we can have a few F-35 "junk" strike Fighters but we don't need to have as many hundred as they want because that takes away from readiness from the rest of the Air Force, Navy and Marines. We should build up our armored units again.

We should modify the Florida agreement so Army Pilots can fly the A-10 Warthog instead of the USAF that wants to get to get rid of that flying tank so they can free up money to pay for the F-35 black hole budget. We should re-wing all of the warthogs. I've read stories that there is money to fund the last third of them who don't have new or wings. I called the junk Strike Fighter because it cannot be a jack-of-all-trades. It cannot be the F-105 thud(so many shot down in vietnam) of the 21st Century. We can have our priorities reversed.

We seem to be relying too much on contractors and not on having actual active-duty assets. I remember when the towel man at the gym or the laundry man on the base was making more( $100k) than I was as a lieutenant in Iraq and as a captain in Afghanistan! There is too much waste going on with contractors.

We had almost a decade is sequestration. Our war stock is very depleted. We gave away most of our war stock that we once had in Western Europe after 1991 and I don't think we have replenished it that much yet. We need to go back to Soviet or similar-type Warsaw Pact force-on-force battles and training like reforger like we used to have prior to 1992. We need to have our tanks upgraded. We need to do large force on Force battles. We need to have the armored Cavalry Regiment come back. We spent too much money on g-wiz Fighters like the junkie F-35 or like the overpriced littoral combat ship. Our combat forces been gutted for over a decade. Our army is finally starting to get smart and get rid of the people who are non Deployable. We have a limited budget and we can't be putting all the money into overpriced research and development. We need to have force- on-force training. Even the Canadians, who have almost no money, have force on force training. I am trying to get on this mission instead of going to Korea. Russia, Iran, China and other countries have large standing armies. Operations other than war is still relevant but we need to go to the Warsaw Pact style of warfare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJzItA92av8&t=37s

Ex MAPLE RESOLVE 16: Music Video / Vidéo de musique

May 18 to June 7, 2016 Wainwright, Alberta, Canada Canadian Army soldiers from 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, with support from the Royal Canadian Air ...

Response by LT Brad McInnis made Feb 18 at 2018 3:44 PM

LT Brad McInnis — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 15:44:10 -0500

My own experience is only really with shipbuilding and Naval ops... We are horrible at building ships, spend way too much for unproven designs, and then spend 4X as much to fix the design flaws. Oversimplification of numbers, but the principle is the same. Look at LCS and DDX as 2 examples.

Response by Maj Marty Hogan made Feb 19 at 2018 12:56 PM

Maj Marty Hogan — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 12:56:45 -0500

Here is a scary thought. 2010 numbers keep in mind. Before you question the number look at my experience. The budget for health care of retirees in approaching $200 million. Let that sink in and look up the updated number.

Response by MCPO Roger Collins made Feb 19 at 2018 2:32 PM

MCPO Roger Collins — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:32:17 -0500

The problem is we do not budget for National Security reasons, that is but one factor. We are too ready to jump into every humanitarian cause around the globe, whether it is in our national interest or not. Also, why do we have school systems within the military when public schools are available? In fact depending on where you are deployed with dependents, highly rated schools, why do we pass out grants and other budget busting elements that do little for our defense. Get back to basics and we wouldn't have to continue with the huge budgets. If North Korea and China can keep up with us militarily on significantly smaller budgets, we are doing something wrong. Not to mention things like weapons systems that no one wants, with the exception of the politicians. The cancellation of the rail gun comes to mind.

Response by CW3 Kevin Storm made Feb 20 at 2018 9:29 AM

CW3 Kevin Storm — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 09:29:32 -0500

IMHO, we are over funded, and have poor management of the resources we have on hand. The incredible amount of waste I have seen over the years I served blew my mind. Sgt York Air defense System, the future combat system, how much money has spent in the last 35 years on a replacement M-16 and yet we are still using it. I watch the NG blow vast amount of money during on hotel rooms, because they developed a policy that said no one stays in the armory. Then when the funding dried up they canned the policy.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made Feb 20 at 2018 9:47 AM

SGM Bill Frazer — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 09:47:57 -0500

Well lets see- the JCS publicly briefed the POTUS that we can no longer fight 2 wars at the same time. Army's 3 level Maintenance facilities have fewer parts than needed. USAF is flying the fewest training hours in their history and over 1/3 of their aircraft are sitting on the ground. The USN has fewer ships operating than ever before and is hurting for parts and people. The past financial policies have cut us to the bone and OPTEMPO hasn't slowed done much.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 20 at 2018 10:16 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:16:32 -0500

MAJ Bryan Zeski the bigger issue to me is the stability and predictability of a budget because when it comes to upgrading our current capabilities it takes years but we go on a CR for 3 weeks at a time....