According to the United States' own announcement, the US defense budget for 2024 will be as high as $886 billion! Such a figure has not only set a new record for defense spending by the United States itself, but also a record for global defense and military spending. On the one hand, it accounts for 40 percent of the world's total military spending, that is to say, the United States, with 4 percent of the world's population, spends 40 percent of the world's military spending; on the other hand, such a figure is more than the second to the tenth place in the world's military spending, that is, the total military spending of the next nine countries!
Then, we can't help but feel very strange, although the US military is worthy of the name of "the strongest army in the world", but such a military expenditure figure is inevitably a little too high. In that case, where exactly is the United States spending its huge military spending? Perhaps we can see some clues from the recent remarks and actions of a US congressman.
On 17 April, US Congressman Mike Walz openly displayed a small plastic bag containing many parts and components in the US Congress, and immediately afterwards, this Mike Waltz openly questioned the US Air Force Secretary: How much does this bag of parts cost? Immediately, without waiting for the US Air Force Secretary to answer, Mike Walz asked himself and said: Such a small bag of inconspicuous parts and components actually cost $90,000! That is, about 650,000 yuan! This answer undoubtedly made a number of "important figures" in the United States at the scene Very surprised!
So, is the part that Mike Waltz shows some kind of "tall" high-tech product? The answer is actually no. It turned out that such components were not advanced equipment, or even specialized, and could only be seen on military equipment. It is just a very common industrial parts liner, which can be placed on some parts that require high precision or airtightness, as a part of the closure or cushioning, and is a "consumable" used to reduce wear and tear between ordinary parts!
We only need to open any shopping platform to find that the price of this kind of liner is actually not high, and even some platforms only need about 1.6 yuan to buy. In fact, in addition to the evil consequences of the United States' own "de-industrialization" for many years, it is more due to the lack of supervision and control over the use of US military spending, which has led to the "upper and lower hands" of various departments!
As a matter of fact, the issue of corruption in the US military has long been no longer news, but there is nothing the United States can do about it, acquiescing in or even conniving at such behavior. For example, before the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, many of the drinking water of tens of thousands of US GIs in Afghanistan were directly airlifted, which led to the extremely high cost of such mineral water, and the price of 500mL bottled mineral water per bottle was $13.37 when the cost of air transportation was included. And because the weather in Afghanistan, deep in the interior of Asia, is dry and hot, the US military's consumption of bottled mineral water is particularly large. According to statistics, the US military camp in Kandahar alone needs to consume 23 million bottles of bottled water in one year, about more than 300 million US dollars.
Afghanistan actually has a lot of indigenous water resources, and if the United States builds a water purification plant there, the cost will undoubtedly be much lower. But if the U.S. military does that, the military contractors who are responsible for the process of procuring bottled water and airlifting it won't make any money. Therefore, the local U.S. troops still drank a bottle of water for more than a dozen dollars until the U.S. troops withdrew.
The Tactical Water Purification Plant (TWPS) in the U.S. produces 1,600 gallons per hour (GPH) of domestic drinking water.
In 2010, the U.S. military originally planned to establish an Afghan Marine Police in Afghanistan, and the U.S. military purchased eight speedboats worth $3 million, or about $370,000 each, for the Afghan Marine Police to be established, which seems to be a small amount. But the problem is that the speedboat is sold for only $50,000 publicly. And the strange thing is that after the ship was bought, the United States suddenly revoked this plan. Today, these eight motorboats are still lying in the Navy Warehouse in Florida.
Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB)
As for a kettle of $1,280 and an office chair of $9,341, it is not uncommon to spend $800 million to develop a "tactical cart" with a unit price of $170,000. Regardless of the fact that the US Congress has approved more than $800 billion for the US military, it is estimated that what can really be used in the military will be greatly discounted! In this case, $90,000 in spare parts is actually nothing.
The price of electric kettles purchased by the U.S. military has risen from $693 in 2016 to $1,280 in 2018
美军力量增强型静音战术手推车（Silent Tactical Energy Enhanced Dismount，STEED），绰号“战马”
The U.S. military once spent $6 million in Afghanistan to buy nine goats to help the local development of animal husbandry, but the nine goats were roasted and eaten by the U.S. military when they arrived