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The expenditures of the Defence Department, the AEG, NASA and outlays on strategic stockpiles, taken together, reflect faithfully on the whole the overall size, trends and structure of US direct military spending. In the present context it also includes AEG and NASA civilian outlays. This seems a fair approach, first, because AEG and NASA civilian outlays are small in relation to the total military spending and, second, because their size and share in the overall AEG and NASA spending cannot be estimated accurately. Third, they must roughly correspond to the numerous “invisible” military expenditures listed under the “ civilian” items of the federal budget.

142 Table 20 US Direct Military Outlays (million dollars; per cent) Fiscal ye ars 1951 1953 1955 1957 I960 1964 1965 Department of Defence ..... 19 765 43 610 35 531 38 435 41 215 49 760 46 173 Military assistance ....... 991 3 954 2 292 2 ’352 1 609 1 485 1 229 AEG 897 1 791 1 857 1 990 2 623 2 765 2 625 Strategic stockpiles and other . . 818 1,087 1,015 590 244 172 136 Total .............. 22,471 50,442 40 695 43 367 45 691 54 182 50 163 NASA ............. 60 80 74 76 401 4 171 5 093 Total 22 531 50 522 40 769 43 443 46 092 ’ 58 353 55 256 Department of Defence ..... Military assistance ....... AEC .............. 87.7 4.4 4 0 86.3 7.8 3 5 87.2 5.5 4 6 88.4 5.4 4 6 89.4 3.5 5 7 85.5 2.5 4 6 83.6 2.2 4 8 Strategic stockpiles and other . . 3.6 2.2 2.5 1.4 0.5 0.3 0.2 Total . . 99 7 99 8 99 8 99 8 99 1 92 9 90 8 NASA 0 3 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 9 7 1 9 2 Total .... . ... 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 z D o o z o Fiscal years 143 Item of expenditure 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973* 1974» Department of Defence 54 409 67,466 77 373 77 877 77 150 74 546 75 151 74 200 78 200 Military assistance ........ 968 873 654 789 731 999 806 600 800 AEC ........ 2,403 2,264 2,466 2,450 2 453 2,275 2,392 2 194 2,374 Strategic stockpiles and other . . . —62 —508 24 116 39 —169 —13 —559 —299 Total .... 57,718 70 095 80 517 81 232 80 295 77 661 78 336 76 435 81 074 NASA 5 933 5 423 4 721 4 247 3 749 3 381 3 422 3 061 3 135 Total 63 651 75 518 85 238 85 479 84 044 81 042 81 758 79 496 84 209 Department of Defence ..... 85.4 89 3 90 9 91.1 91.8 92 0 91.9 93.2 92.9 Military assistance 1.6 1 2 0 8 0 9 0 9 1 2 1 0 0.8 1 0 AEC ............... 3.8 3.0 2.9 2.9 2.9 2.8 2.9 2 8 2.8 Strategic stockpiles and other . . . —0.1 —0.7 0.1 0.1 -0.2 —0.7 -0.4 Total . 90.7 92.8 94.5 95.0 95.5 95.8 95.8 96.1 96.3 NASA 9.3 7.2 5.5 5.0 4.5 4.2 4.2 3.9 3.7 Total .............. 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 c z a

p * Estimate.

p Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1957, p. 238; 1963, p. 256; 1965, p. 254; The Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1968, pp. 456-57; Fiscal Year 1971, p. 82; Fiscal Year 1974, pp. 364-65.

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p Substantial changes have been taking place in the structure of the US total military outlays (see Table 20). The war in Vietnam increased the share of the Defence Department and reduced that of the AEG, NASA and military aid. Such items as the maintenance of military personnel, procurement of military equipment, the costs of its maintenance and operation have moved to the top of the Defence Department spending list, the share of outlays on R&D and military construction has been reduced.

p A large share of US military appropriations goes to buy armaments and finance R&D and NASA. While expenditure on arms procurement increases military power through stockpiling weapons and materiel, spending on R&D and space exploration is designed to augment military potential by developing novel and improving existing weapons systems. Now that the USA has built up massive weapons stockpiles, intensive work is under way to develop novel types of armament and gain a relatively greater military advantage than that given by weapons stockpiling. Therefore, before the US escalation in Vietnam spending on R&D grew at a faster rate than that on arms procurement.

p In 1957/58 expenditure on R&D was 18 per cent in relation to that on military procurement, whereas in 1964/65 it reached 52.7 per cent. In recent years, the proportion has declined to one-third.

p Military procurement and R&D expenditure is crucial for military power, since it largely determines the standards of armed forces equipment.

p The switch from the strategy of "massive nuclear retaliation" to one of "flexible response”, and later the Vietnam war stimulated an appreciable increase in the share of expenditure on conventional armaments and hence on the ground forces in the overall US military outlays. The new strategy of "realistic containment" is likely to reduce the share of the Army and increase that of the Air Force and the Navy in the Pentagon’s overall expenditures.

p The table below illustrates the structure of the Defence Department spending on the three armed services and various defence agencies.

p Changes in a country’s military strategy and policy and the advance of its armaments are reflected in the volume and
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145 Fiscal years 1964 1068 1970 1971 1972« 1973* Department of the Army Department of the Navy Department of the Air Force Defence agencies and other 12.0 14.5 20.5 2.5 25.2 22.1 25.7 4.2 24.7 22.5 24.9 5.0 23.1 22.1 23.8 6.6 22.1 22.1 23.7 7.9 20.7 22.3 22.6 10.9 Total .......... 49.5 77.2 77.1 75.6 75.8 76.5

p * Estimate.

Sources: Space Daily, February 1971, p. 136; Armed Forces Journal, March 1972, pp. 30-31.

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structure of military expenditures. An analysis of the latter gives an idea of the military development tendencies of a country and of its strategic plans for the future. This particularly applies to the United States.