Using China as an example, they currently have a budget of $30 billion US. Why is it so expensive to build an effective army? A MiG-29 costs $15 million each, a destroyer costs $300 million each. What makes a military budget total $30 billion? I won't even go with the United States, they have a military budget of $400 billion US. Where does all the money go?
Why are military budgets so expensive?
Whispering Death
Active member
Men cost money, training costs money, every single cute little smart bomb has a not so cute nor so little price tag attached to it.
I think it would be cool to see a pie graph of where all the 400 billion goes, though.
I think it would be cool to see a pie graph of where all the 400 billion goes, though.
Doppleganger
Active member
You can be sure that some of the money is siphoned off by people with sticky fingers. Both corruption and mis-management seem to go hand-in-hand where military contracting is concerned.
AFSteliga
Token Canadian Moder'eh'tor
Guaranteed that some of the money is used by greedy political figures and civilian corporations that manufacture some of the Military equipment.
However, it does cost a very large amount in order to assemble, organize, train, pay, run, and maintain an effective military.
However, it does cost a very large amount in order to assemble, organize, train, pay, run, and maintain an effective military.
Duty Honor Country
Active member
Doppleganger said:
you are quite right. The US Civil War is a perfect example of profiteering when it comes to the government and military contractors.
I find it interesting that a civilian doing a paticular job in Iraq makes over $100,000 a year while a solider doing the exact same job makes only $30,000. There be riches in contracting for Uncle Sam.
Whispering Death
Active member
Yeah but corporate wrongdoing is very very small and usually is kept in good overwatch by the millitary beancounters.
In the 400 billion just think of how much each one of our carriers costs to build, maintain, staff with 5,000 men, feed all of them, buy the aircraft to go on it, buy the munitions to arm it, upgrade the hardware and maintain the entire ship. Now multiply that by 12 aircraft carriers.
And that's just the carriers. Think about each submarine, cruiser, all the missiles to put on both of those platforms, now think about the destroyers and how many of those we have. And that's just a fraction of one branch of the U.S. military.
In the 400 billion just think of how much each one of our carriers costs to build, maintain, staff with 5,000 men, feed all of them, buy the aircraft to go on it, buy the munitions to arm it, upgrade the hardware and maintain the entire ship. Now multiply that by 12 aircraft carriers.
And that's just the carriers. Think about each submarine, cruiser, all the missiles to put on both of those platforms, now think about the destroyers and how many of those we have. And that's just a fraction of one branch of the U.S. military.
Missileer
Active member
Research and development is, by definition a loss financially. Deep thinkers are expensive but the white paper that they produce eventually becomes the most cutting edge technology possible. Then, the hardware to produce systems, most times, has to be developed before an idea can go from a theory to the lab and eventually, the production floor. When it comes to technical expertise, you get what you pay for.