A U.S. soldier loads a machine gun on an automatic turret over a Mine Resistant ATV prior to a patrol at the forward operating Base Finley Shields in Jalalabad, April 7.
PARIS — With battles raging in Congress over the Pentagon’s proposed budget cuts, a new report says the gap in military spending between the U.S. and the rest of the world is narrowing, with Washington’s erstwhile foes — China and Russia — splurging on new weapons systems and several countries from Saudi Arabia to Algeria also spending billions on upgrading their arsenals. That’s the bottom line in the latest annual rankings of world military spending compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI. “There is a shift globally from the West to other countries,” says Elisabeth Skons, SIPRI’s Africa program director. “It is very much related to economic-growth rates rather than security-related factors.”
SIPRI’s report breaks down country by country the $1.75 trillion (yes, trillion) that the world spent in 2012 on military budgets and reveals some startling figures. Russia’s military spending rose 16% last year alone, and China, which is now the world’s second biggest military buyer after the U.S., increased its spending by 7.8%. Among the Middle Eastern countries that disclose their military budgets, several have hugely ramped up their military capabilities, using rocketing oil revenue to buy high-priced fighter jets and missile systems. Saudi Arabia increased its military spending by 12% in 2012, and Oman’s increase was a whopping 51%.
Full thing here.