Ranking of World Military Forces by Country

Sekai published an article last month, a translation of “Why the United States really has gone broke” by Chalmers Johnson. Included is this table ranking countries by the amount of money they spend on their military forces.

1
USA
$623 billion
2008 Budget

2
China
$65 billion
2004

3
Russia
$50 billion

4
France
$45 billion
2005

5
Japan
$41.75 billion
2007

6
Germany
$35.1 billion
2003

7
Italy
$28.2 billion
2003

8
Korea
$21.1 billion
2003

9
India
$19 billion
2005 estimate

10
Saudi Arabia
$18 billion
2005 estimate

Missile Defense

Military affairs journalist Shunji Taoka (田岡俊次) reports in Sekai (世界) (March ‘08) that the Japanese government have already paid over ¥1000000000000 (一兆円) (approx.$9.25 billion) to the US for a limited and still-experimental Patriot Missile Defense system.