Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders kicked-off his campaign in Brooklyn on Saturday.

He repudiated the "military-industrial-complex" and vowed to redirect the US's profligate defense spending.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, proposed deep cuts to military spending in in favor of ambitious government programs at his campaign launch Saturday.

In front of an open crowd and freezing weather in Brooklyn, N.Y., the independent-turned-Democratic-presidential-hopeful held his first rally of the campaign, where he laid out a broad road map to what a Sanders presidency would look like.

Included in the plan is scaling down the Pentagon's budget.

A US Marine on patrol in a village near Bost Kalay, Afghanistan. US Marine Corps

"Today, we say to the military-industrial-complex that we will not continue to spend $700 billion a year on the military — more than the next 10 nations combined," the White House hopeful told the crowd. "We're going to invest in affordable housing, we're going to invest in public education, we're going to invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure — not more nuclear weapons and never-ending wars."

Sanders, a Brooklyn native, staked out his campaign as the antithesis to Trump, striking policy contrasts on everything from social policy to taxes, from environmental policy, to approaches to health care reform.

"Trump wants to divide us up by the color of our skin, our country of origin, our gender, our religion and our sexual orientation. We are going to do exactly the opposite," Sanders said. "We are going to bring our people together — black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, men and women, native-born and immigrant."

"We are going to bring our people together for an unprecedented grassroots effort, which, I am happy to tell you, already has over one million people signed up as volunteers," he said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders at a healthcare rally. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Notably, Sanders did not address any of the policy differences with other contenders for the Democratic nomination or make any personal references to other candidates, addressing from the beginning of the campaign rally his intention to go head-to-head against Trump and the political system Sanders claims the president represents.

"Make no mistake about it, this struggle is not just about defeating Donald Trump. This struggle is about taking on the incredibly powerful institutions that control the economic and political life of this country," he told the crowd. "I’m talking about Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, the fossil fuel industry and a corrupt campaign finance system that enables billionaires to buy elections."

Sanders is consistently polling at or near the top in the heavily contested Democratic primary. The latest Real Clear Politics averages puts the senator in second below former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is expected to announce a decision on his own presidential run in the coming weeks.