The military budget is a jobs program that also keeps a (near bare minimum) level of industrial capacity afloat.
Its why no politician left or right is really interested in cutting it. If you browse open contracts, you'll see they that they overwhelmingly buy rather banal things and spend comparatively little on the "killing people" parts.
What do you think NASA is? NASA is so expensive because it's a jobs program. There's no other reason for Boeing to have factories in so many states for building satellites.
Defense spending in the USA is double what is publicly published
There are all kinds of dark budgets and stuff spun off into "civilian" programs that actually aren't
The published cost of Iran War is like $30 Billion when it is obviously over $100 Billion by experts and that doesn't including replacing all the missiles
TWENTY-ONE TRILLION DOLLARS since 9/11 spent on defense 2001-2021
One idea that stuck out to me was an array of giant thin solar powered spinning metal Crookes radiometers magnets in a line to make a railgun-like launcher. Materially cheap to do.
https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/victus-haze/
Just one year
It would be AMAZING
Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US
We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already
Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly
Its why no politician left or right is really interested in cutting it. If you browse open contracts, you'll see they that they overwhelmingly buy rather banal things and spend comparatively little on the "killing people" parts.
I think it’s fun to think about it in this way. I personally spend hundreds of dollars a month on war.
There are all kinds of dark budgets and stuff spun off into "civilian" programs that actually aren't
The published cost of Iran War is like $30 Billion when it is obviously over $100 Billion by experts and that doesn't including replacing all the missiles
TWENTY-ONE TRILLION DOLLARS since 9/11 spent on defense 2001-2021
* https://ips-dc.org/report-state-of-insecurity-cost-militariz...
imagine how much food clothing shelter for the US and WORLD that would buy
we'd have humans on Mars already with that budget not even knowing now how to stop space-blindness and bone-loss
And all of the money the US gives to Israel is earmarked for American products.
Related, but not exactly what I was thinking of: https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/05/a-rotating-probe-... The original source I'm thinking of may be lost to time :( I'll keep hunting.