Military spending

Monitoring military expenditure

There is no generally agreed definition of military expenditure worldwide. SIPRI’s approach is to try to include all costs incurred as a result of current military forces and activities in the definition. This includes spending that may not support a direct front-line military activity, but which is nonetheless a necessary part of maintaining a functioning military force. It frequently includes spending that is not in a country’s main defence budget.

The main categories of spending in the SIPRI definition are

• personnel expenditure: salaries and benefits of military and civilian defence personnel;
• operations and maintenance expenditure: running costs such as fuel, repair and maintenance, travel, general supplies, rent, utilities and payments for services;
• procurement: expenditure for military equipment;
• research and development (R&D): expenditure for developing new weapon systems and technologies;
• construction: expenditure for military bases and other military infrastructure; and
• other smaller categories such as military aid to other countries.