The U.S. Military Budget Is Bigger Than the 10 Next Biggest Military Budgets Combined

Next week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to
present a military budget that will reduce the size of the Army
to pre-9-11 levels and end service on several elderly weapons
programs, including the A-10 and the U-2 spy plan. If enacted, the
plan would trim
military spending by about $75 billion over two years. Defense
Department officials are already suggesting that the budget
trimming is potentially risky, and the move is likely to
generate pushback from hawkish Republicans. 

It’s important to put this in context. There’s simply no
international rival that spends even close to as much money on its
military as America does. As this
graph from Peter G. Peterson Foundation for Internation
Economics shows, the U.S. already spends more on defense than the
next 10 countries combined: