
The U.S. Military’s Force Structure: A Primer - tacon
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/51535
======
daltonlp
There's a nifty interactive tool for playing with costs!
[https://www.cbo.gov/publication/54351](https://www.cbo.gov/publication/54351)

I gave it a whirl. There are some built-in constraints. For instance, you
can't take away minuteman missiles. Nor can you cancel dental insurance for
servicemembers.

Also, you are not allowed to entirely disband any component. There must be at
least one aircraft carrier, one army brigade, etc. Force reductions in general
staff are limited to 50%.

But I tried. I took away everything I could. Cranked every slider to its
minimum value.

For a total reduction in personnel of 1,071,000.

For a grand total annual savings of...$184 billion.

That savings is roughly 30% of the actual us military budget (depending on
what year you compare with)

In other words, if the US military shrinks to its absolute minimum level, it
somehow still costs 2/3 of the money. According to the CBO's online slider
tool, at least.

~~~
anovikov
Does it work well other way around? If you wanted to massively increase the
capability, does it scale up well?

...checked, it does... just +120B makes a force that really kicks ass,
+50-100% of the current. why not just do it, then regularly practice overseas
deployments to seriously scare shit out of the Arabs and get better oil deals
for everyone, doesn't it save money in the end?

~~~
Fjolsvith
> then regularly practice overseas deployments to seriously scare shit out of
> the Arabs and get better oil deals for everyone, doesn't it save money in
> the end?

No. Pulling tax money out of everyone's wallets to make gas at the pump
cheaper doesn't save everyone money.

~~~
anovikov
It does. Money spent on the military is spent domestically with only a small
fraction of them leaving the country, the rest being spent inside and boosting
the economy; the money spent buying all foreign oil is all just going away...
so even if we are to spend somewhat more than $1 for the military to reduce
oil spending by $1 that will make perfect sense, net result for the economy
overall will be positive.

~~~
Fjolsvith
But, if the US is a net exporter of oil [1], where is all that $1 going,
really?

1\.
[https://www.ft.com/content/9cbba7b0-12dd-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e5...](https://www.ft.com/content/9cbba7b0-12dd-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e548a)

