DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - US military budget: How would you change it?

**refdhbgtd** · 03-15-2011, 08:29 PM

As General Amos said a few months back before the House Armed Services Committee:

Wikipedia says 4% so I'm assuming General Amos is including the cost of support from the Navy in that 8.5%.

The US gets its most bang for its buck with the Corps.

31% of ground forces for 8.5% of the budget? How the hell do you not think the Corps is a veritable budget steal?

Thats still disengenuous. In the case of the tactical aircraft for instance, I highly doubt they are including the carrier services provided by our CVNs and LHDs/LHAs whose operational and procurement costs are covered entirely by the Navy.

Also, while they provided 31% of the ground forces that is almost entirely light infantry. We can debate how much it is still needed, but the Marine corps is not going to stand up well at all against a peer competitor fielding heavy weapons and mechanized arms. Things like tanks and the like are more expensive than light infantry and thats the Army's bag.

In short, of course the Marines are cheap because their mission areas rarely cover the expensive portions of the overall defense budget.

03-15-2011, 08:29 PM	#19
refdhbgtd Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 398 Senior Member	As General Amos said a few months back before the House Armed Services Committee: Wikipedia says 4% so I'm assuming General Amos is including the cost of support from the Navy in that 8.5%. The US gets its most bang for its buck with the Corps. 31% of ground forces for 8.5% of the budget? How the hell do you not think the Corps is a veritable budget steal? Thats still disengenuous. In the case of the tactical aircraft for instance, I highly doubt they are including the carrier services provided by our CVNs and LHDs/LHAs whose operational and procurement costs are covered entirely by the Navy. Also, while they provided 31% of the ground forces that is almost entirely light infantry. We can debate how much it is still needed, but the Marine corps is not going to stand up well at all against a peer competitor fielding heavy weapons and mechanized arms. Things like tanks and the like are more expensive than light infantry and thats the Army's bag. In short, of course the Marines are cheap because their mission areas rarely cover the expensive portions of the overall defense budget.
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