Sources and citations

Commonly Cited US Military Spending FY2024: $997,000,000,000 ($997 Billion)
SIPRI, “Unprecedented rise in global military expenditure as European and Middle East spending surges,” April 28, 2025, https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2025/unprecedented-rise-global-military-expenditure-european-and-middle-east-spending-surges.

Real Total US Military Spending FY2024: $1,700,000,000,000 ($1.7 Trillion)
David Vine, calculations available at Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/DJRgj_cpjws

Percentage of Pentagon Budget Going to Contractors: 54
Percentage for 2020–2024. William D. Hartung and Stephen Semler, “Profits of War: Top Beneficiaries of Pentagon Spending, 2020 – 2024,” Quincy Brief #79, Quincy Institute, July 8, 2025, https://quincyinst.org/research/profits-of-war-top-beneficiaries-of-pentagon-spending-2020-2024.

Minimum Estimated Cost of US “War on Terror”: $8,000,000,000,000 ($8 Trillion)
Costs of War Project, “Estimate of U.S. Post-9/11 War Spending,” June 2025, https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/economic/budget.

Number of US Military Bases Abroad: 750–800
Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition, Fact Sheet, https://www.overseasbases.net/fact-sheet.html. Drawing on David Vine, Patterson Deppen, and Leah Bolger, “Drawdown: Improving U.S. and Global Security Through Military Base Closures Abroad,” Quincy Brief #16, Quincy Institute/World Beyond War, September 20, 2021, https://quincyinst.org/report/drawdown-improving-u-s-and-global-security-through-military-base-closures-abroad/.

Top 5 Pentagon Contractors
Top 5 for 2020–2024. Hartung and Semler, “Profits of War.”