For the full-year 2015, world military spending totalled $1.67 trillion, a rise of one percent from the previous year.
| This seems commensurate with inflation... |
The United States remains in pole position as the country that spends the most on its armed forces, by far.
Washington's military spending budget of $596 billion was down by 2.4 percent from the previous year, a smaller decline than in recent years.
SIPRI senior researcher Sam Perlo-Freeman said the United States now has "additional overseas contingency operations' (OCO) spending from the war against" the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) group.
The world's second-biggest spender, China, dished out $215 billion, followed by Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
which overtook Russia for third place at $87.2 billion. Moscow spent $66.4 billion.
During the 10-year period from 2006-2015, the U.S. military budget shrank by four percent, while China's soared by 132 percent. Those of Saudi Arabia and Russia also increased significantly, by 97 and 91 percent respectively.
La Belle France, which had the fifth biggest budget in 2014, fell to seventh place behind Britannia and India.
Military spending budgets continued to decline across Western Europe, albeit less sharply than in recent years.
"The reasons for the change in trend are Russia, IS and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
politics," Perlo-Freeman said, noting that Alliance members have agreed to maintain spending at two percent of their gross domestic product until 2024.
In Asia, rising spending in Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam reflected tensions with China and
North Korea, SIPRI said.