Donald Trump to increase military spending, but how much does the US and the world spend?

Updated

United States President Donald Trump has pledged to pump a further $A70 billion into the country's world-leading defence budget, in what he says will be a "message to the world in these dangerous times".

The United States already dwarfs the rest of the world in military spending — last year, the US spent $US622 billion, followed by China with $US191 billion, while the UK, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia all spent about $US50 billion.

Australia's defence budget was about $US27 billion, making it the 11th-biggest spender.

Another way of looking at that expenditure is as a percentage of a country's GDP, or gross domestic product.

The World Bank last year estimated how much various countries spent on defence as a percentage of GDP — USA 3.3 per cent, China 2 per cent, Russia 5 per cent, UK 1.9 per cent, South Korea 2.6 per cent, and Australia 2 per cent.

North Korea is estimated to spend up to a quarter of its GDP on defence, but that is coming from a low earnings base.

Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, allocates a whopping 14 per cent of its GDP on defence, double what it spends on health and social development.

It has been throwing its weight around recently, engaging in a war in Yemen and joining forces with Turkey against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

What does Saudi Arabia get for $50 billion a year?

Saudi Arabia's air force is loaded, with 300 fighter jets and 15 active airfields and a further 48 Typhoon jet fighters — worth $US5 billion — on order from British firm BAE.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is one of the most advanced jets ever built and was a joint project between members of the European Union.

They also have dozens of US-made F-15s, with another 80 on order, as well as 22 new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft.

It also has about 440,000 active military personnel, with 225,000 army troops as well as a 100,000 strong national guard.

And what army would be complete without tanks? 442 of the M1A2 Abrams type, produced in the US, to be specific.

They have also got a strategic missile force with long-distance high explosive warheads, 750 Howitzers and American rocket launchers capable of hitting targets 300 kilometres away.

So how do you compare military forces?

There are many attempts to rank the most powerful countries in the world, but much of the information would be classified.

For amateur armchair commanders, there is one way to try and put all the spending in perspective. The Global Firepower 2016 list looks at the effectiveness of weapon diversity to rank the most powerful military nations in the world, using publicly available information.

The US is on top of the list, while Russia has grabbed second spot ahead of China, even though Russia spends a lot less and has smaller firepower.

Despite its big spending Saudi Arabia is well down the list ranked 24th, one behind Australia and just ahead of North Korea.

Global Firepower 2016 military power rankings United States Russia China India France United Kingdom Japan Turkey Germany Italy

In the era of high-tech warfare and the need to spend big on complex equipment, there is still a need for boots on the ground, although large standing armies can be more a liability than an asset.

China has around 2.5 million troops, the USA 1.4 million, Russia 750,000 and North Korea more than a million.

The USA's superiority lies in its airpower with 13,400 aircraft, four times as many as China and three times more than Russia.

Russia has the most tanks by far at 15,000 but China has the most ships with more than 2,000 compared to the American fleet of just 400.

However, the US fleet is by far the most advanced with 10 aircraft carriers, the latest USS Gerald R. Ford costing $13 billion and able to launch aircraft much more efficiently with the first electromagnetic launch system.

Australia's defence forces currently have about 60,000 active military, 417 aircraft, 60 tanks 41 ships and six submarines.

The cost of keeping a strategic advantage though is getting higher with very expensive purchases like French submarines ($50 billion) and the US joint strike fighter program ($17 billion).

Topics: defence-industry, defence-forces, defence-and-national-security, business-economics-and-finance, united-states, australia, russian-federation, china

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