Commie Military Spending

Figured I’d follow up yesterday’s post with an update on military spending by our geopolitical foes.

I wrote a post back in 2006 worrying about China’s and Russia’s trends in military expenditures. Since then, Russia’s inflation-adjusted expenditures have increased by 60% and China’s have doubled. Ours have increased by 16%. So my worry hasn’t diminished.

Back in the mid-90’s their combined spending was at a low point – their combined spending was only 15% of ours. Now it’s 38%. And if you consider the lower prices and salaries in those countries (i.e., the purchasing power parity), their effective military budget is about 57% of ours. That’s not taking into account the money they save by taking advantage of US R&D, nor the fact that both countries have a history of understating their actual military expenditures.

As predicted, China has already started throwing its weight around the South China Sea. Russia is playing footsie with the US in Eastern Europe over missile and missile defense systems. What will they be doing in 10 years?

*Military expenditure data from SIPRI.org. Purchasing Power Parity estimate from the World Bank.