MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World military expenditure in 2008 totalled 1.46 trillion, up 45% since 1999

China has become the country which most invests in military expenditure behind the US.

United States spent 607 billion US dollars on its military in 2008, accounting for 42% of the total world military expenditure for the year with China, France and the United Kingdom far behind, according to the 2009 Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, issued by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, on Monday.

In 2008, the world total military expenditure was an estimated 1.464 trillion US dollars, accounting for an increase of 4% in real terms compared to 2007, and an increase of 45% since 1999.

US military spending grew by 219 billion in constant 2005 prices between 1999 and 2008. The SIPRI report points out that China and Russia had absolute increases of 42 billion and 24 billion to 84.9 and 58.6 billion US dollars respectively.

France and the UK spent about 65 billion dollars US dollars while Germany and Japan spent about 46 billion dollars respectively. Other regional powers—particularly India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Brazil, South Korea and Algeria—also made substantial contributions to the total increase.

“The idea of the “war on terror” has encouraged many countries to see their problems through a highly militarized lens, using this to justify high military spending” explained Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, Head of the Military Expenditure Project at SIPRI.

“Meanwhile, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost $903 billion in additional military spending by the US alone”.

According to the Yearbook's survey of peacekeeping operations, another record was set last year with the total of international peace operation personnel reaching 187 586, a jump of 11% since 2007 (the previous record year). Despite this, some of the ambitious missions being deployed in trouble spots like Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo remain far short of their envisioned strengths.

The Yearbook also includes SIPRI's list of the top 100 arms producing companies (excluding Chinese companies). The US company Boeing remained the top arms producer in 2007 with arms sales worth 30.5 billion. All the top 20 companies in the ‘SIPRI Top 100' for 2007 are from the US or European.

The aggregate arms sales of the SIPRI Top 100 reached 347 billion in 2007, an increase of 11% in nominal terms and 5% in real terms for 2006. SIPRI estimates that in total there were around 8.400 operational nuclear warheads in the world, of which almost 2000 were kept on high alert and capable of being launched in minutes.

Counting spare warheads, those in storage and those due for dismantlement, there were some 23 300 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of eight states: the USA, Russia, China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan and Israel according to the Yearbook.