[sparky]

.
Found this little gem , it's a bit old .....1993
it's an internal study by the pentagon on the cost of one light infantryman , equipped , trained
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a265173.pdf

estimated cost ....138.000 $ , that was in 1993
during a 2012 budget hearing , a committee senator asked the cost of one soldier deployed in Afghanistan
under secretary Hale said that to the best of his knowledge , the annual cost of one soldier was about 850.000 bucks
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/2 ... nd-rising/

of course there is very large deployment and building costs , fuel is a massive bill and it's a simple division of cost per head
it get even worst when one realize there is barely one man in four holding a gun and walking on the wild side

The cost for the Taliban is probably less than 500$
that's the cost of a good quality AK with a box of ammo , with spare change left over

[SeaGypsy]

I think the U.S. Military veterans pensions are going to be a crippler over coming years. Of a bunch of ex service personnel I am friendly with are a bunch of guys in their 70s & 80s from the Korea & Vietnam war eras, copping near $1k a week, for decades, living in 3rd world countries where their money goes much further than at home, but does essentially nothing for the U.S. economy. There must be hundreds of thousands of these guys scattered around the world now, with thousands more a month added.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'I') think the U.S. Military veterans pensions are going to be a crippler over coming years. Of a bunch of ex service personnel I am friendly with are a bunch of guys in their 70s & 80s from the Korea & Vietnam war eras, copping near $1k a week, for decades, living in 3rd world countries where their money goes much further than at home, but does essentially nothing for the U.S. economy. There must be hundreds of thousands of these guys scattered around the world now, with thousands more a month added.

[SeaGypsy]

Some of the older guys were decorated, almost all the younger guys are on disability from combat & getting close to $1k a week in their 20's. Isn't there about 270k new VA pensions granted a year? With a good chunk of that being young guys with PTSD?

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'S')ome of the older guys were decorated, almost all the younger guys are on disability from combat & getting close to $1k a week in their 20's. Isn't there about 270k new VA pensions granted a year? With a good chunk of that being young guys with PTSD?

[SILENTTODD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'S')ome of the older guys were decorated, almost all the younger guys are on disability from combat & getting close to $1k a week in their 20's. Isn't there about 270k new VA pensions granted a year? With a good chunk of that being young guys with PTSD?

[Pops]

Privatization.
Why commit to a soldier when you can pay a contractor piece-work rates and be done?

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'P')rivatization.
Why commit to a soldier when you can pay a contractor piece-work rates and be done?

[Withnail]

The barbarians always win aginst the Empire in the end.

Tick Tock, USA.

[Tanada]

When a country turns to Mercenaries it is on the down slope of civilization.

[Shaved Monkey]

Drones cheap to run,no pensions required can kill as many multi generational family groups as necessary without much negative consequence.(deliberately lessen the likelihood of revenge in the future,cant have the relatives of Saddam or Gadaffi running around and you can claim it was a mistake)
and/or
Just train, fund and arm the disenfranchised to do your fighting for you and bring down the governments of your ideological enemies its a lot cheaper,than sending your citizens in.(short term)
or
Citizenship for anyone willing to die for the flag on minimum wage.

[SeaGypsy]

OK Carinke, I think I was converting AUD, PHP & USD, muddled the numbers somewhat. At present I can't recall where I got the near quarter million number, from memory it peaked as the Iraq withdrawal proceeded.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'P')rivatization.
Why commit to a soldier when you can pay a contractor piece-work rates and be done?

[sparky]

.
It's a common misconception to believe the barbarians hordes beaten the Roman army ,
most of the time they were the Roman army .
up to the end the Empire had military supremacy
but they just ran out of money

[Lore]

Correct, it was a breakdown of command and control. When the pay stopped showing up most of the outer empire desolved into the local population. Of which they were already a part of.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')For more than 20 years, the Government Accountability Office has never been able to produce a clean audit at the Defense Department, as required by federal law to allow appropriations for the next fiscal year, because of hundreds of millions of dollars in unaccounted annual expenditures. What does the federal government spend for military purposes? It is far larger than appropriations and allocations just to the DoD! Most citizens are not cognizant, and politicians disguise actual total military expenditures. These expenditures and obligations account for approximately 25 percent of the total federal fiscal budget, or about 5.3 percent of U.S. GDP. The United Kingdom and Japan, on the other hand, restrict total military expenditure to 2 percent and 1 percent of their GDP, respectively. For FY2018, actual U.S. military expenditures and obligations not only include DoD appropriations ($622 billion) that the Office of Management of the Budget

[Plantagenet]

The Ds and the Rs in Congress have just combined to pass a two year budget with a huge budget INCREASE for the military, and then Trump signed it into law.

We evidently haven't hit Peak Military yet in the USA.

Cheers!


Peak Military? Not yet. Not by a long shot.