One thing that's important to remember when it comes to discussing military budgets is that numbers don't matter that much, but ratios do. In terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the United States has the largest economy in the world, accounting for 25% of the gross world product. While China surpasses the U.S. in terms of PPP (Purchasing Power Parity), the U.S. is still far ahead in terms of GDP per capita (approx. $59,000 to China's $16,000). People love to throw out the phrase "The United States spends more on military spending then the next 10 countries!" However, if you look closer, you'll notice that the GDP of the U.S. is $19.42 trillion dollars. The combined GDP of all 28 nations in the European Union is just under that, at about $19.3 trillion dollars (converted from euros). Furthermore, the U.S. GDP per capita is about $57,000, while that of the EU is only $37,000. All of these stats to say: the U.S. economy is the largest in the world. Upon examination of more statistics, the U.S. spends approximately 3.3% of its GDP on defense. For comparison: the U.K. spends 1.9%, France spends 2.3%, Germany spends 1.2%, and China spends 1.9%. So, the U.S. does spend more, but not nearly as much as people think. Upon looking closely at the data, 10 countries spend more on defense per GDP than the U.S.: Colombia (3.4%), Pakistan (3.4%), Singapore (3.4%), Russia (5.3%), United Arab Emirates (5.7%), Israel (5.8%), Kuwait (6.5%), Algeria (6.7%), Saudi Arabia (10%), and Oman (16.7%). I know this doesn't address all aspects of your question, but hopefully it does provide some perspective into how much the U.S. really spends on its military.