.5 Trillion is owed in suffocating student loan debt, and 63% of the population cannot afford a 0 emergency repair.) Were it not for The Report’s dire (yet, fully funded) predictions for world domination, one would think this budget request was satire by The Onion. From page 2-4, the foreign affairs Strategic Approach for the upcoming year states: “to succeed in the emerging security environment, the Department and Joint Force will have to out-think, out-maneuver, out-partner, and out-innovate revisionist powers, rogue regimes, terrorists, and other threat actors.” And again, the number one goal is to “Build a more lethal force.” In a world where money is no object, The Report specifically details the following purchasing priorities for 2019: Increasing the strength of the Army, Navy, and Air Force by almost 26,000; Buying ten combat ships (.4 Billion); Increasing production of the F-35 aircraft and F/A-18 aircraft (.7 Billion); Enhancing deterrence by modernizing the nuclear triad; And the ever-lovin’: Increasing the emphasis on technology innovation for increased lethality. Additionally, The Report states “The DoD has expended more munitions than planned over the last few years, primarily to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), leading to higher demand to replenish munition inventories” (3-6). Addressing these needs, the 2019 budget request increases by over 28,300 the amount of production for the following munitions: Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems; Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems; Joint Direct Attack Munition; Small Diameter Bomb 1 (includes spares); Hellfire rockets; Army Tactical Missile Systems TOTAL increased cost in the 2019 budget for these munitions is .1 Billion (p.3-7) In a surprise (yet not really) admission, The Report states that “major power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security” (page 2-1). But let’s back up a minute. More historical perspective is relative at this point, if only to grasp the enormity of US spending over the last 18 years on endless wars around the globe (and also because I like numbers.) War Funding One hundred years ago, World War One cost the US .6 Billion dollars, which today is 8 billion, adjusted for inflation. The 2019 DoD budget request is 6.1 Billion, or twice what it cost the US during WW1 in today’s dollars (and the US was involved less than 2 years.) Included in the DoD 2019 Budget request of 6.1 Billion, is Billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), which predominantly funds the wars (operations, in-theatre support, classified programs, coalition forces, counter-ISIS training, security, etc.) Specifically stated areas include Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and “other mobilization” sites. According to the The Report, OCO funding alone for the 18 year period beginning in 2001 through 2018 totaled > .8 Trillion (1-3), or almost 1 Billion per year – an amount which approximates the annual combined budgets of the US Department of Education ( Billion) Department of Health & Human Services ( Billion), the Department of Transportation (.6 Billion), and Department of Labor (.4 Billion.) Military Bases outside US borders Pouring through various documents, publications, books, and research papers, I developed a list of countries with US military bases outside the US. This list includes US territories (Guam, US Virgin Islands, Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico) and includes bases in 183 countries, on 7 continents and 7 bodies of water. Exhibit A-1 identifies the list of countries, totaling 883 sites. This number does not include US Embassies and may or may not include other sites such as lily pads (smaller, temporary, and/or not authorized sites) and special operations sites. Some publicly available documents, from the US government, contradict one other. For example, the Army’s most recent average cost per person is just under 0K (.3K). However, other defense documents calculate average cost per person at K. I could not find a single, comprehensive document which accounted for the total cost of overseas bases (additionally, many excluded the cost of bases on US Territories), so I took data available, from a number of resources to calculate the costs contained herein. Where contradictions occur, I so note. I started with the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request which acknowledges .6 Trillion in assets on the balance sheet of the Department’s books (6-2). Of these assets, another report – The Base Structure Report Fiscal Year 2017 states (Baseline Report page DoD-6): “The DoD manages a worldwide real property portfolio that spans all 50 states, eight US territories with outlying areas, and 41 foreign countries. The majority of the foreign sites are located in Germany (120 sites), Japan (121 sites) and South Korea (78 sites.)” The Baseline Report identifies a total of 4,793 sites worldwide, at a value of > .046 Trillion, covering 27.2 million acres of land. Of the 883 sites in Exhibit A-1, The Baseline Report verifies 110 sites located in US Territories and another 517 sites overseas, for a total of 627 sites outside the US with a 09/30/16 value of approximately 0 Billion. This worldwide portfolio of 4,793 sites on over 27 million acres includes: Buildings: “The DOD occupies a reported 275,504 buildings throughout the world, valued at over 5 billion and comprising over 2.2 billion square feet (DoD-8).” The buildings include administrative, community facilities, family housing, hospitals and medical, maintenance, production, operation and training, research and development, testing, supply, troop housing, mess facilities and utility and ground improvements. Structures: DoD structures throughout the world are valued at over 2 Billion. Linear Structures: DoD manages over 112,931 linear structures throughout the world at a value over 8 Billion. Linear structures are facilities whose functions require that it traverse land (examples include runways, roads, rail lines, pipelines, fences, pavement, and electrical distribution lines.) The difference between Exhibit A-1 estimate of overseas bases of 883 and the 627 mentioned in the baseline report may be reconciled as follows: The DoD will be undergoing one of the largest consolidated DoD-wide financial statement audits in Fiscal Year 2018, which will involve both general funds and working capital funds. A focus of the audit will be “the discovery of Real Property and General Equipment not being recorded in the proper system (6-3).” (It is anticipated, based on prior audits, that not all overseas sites assets – i.e. buildings, roads, structures – are recorded on the books of the DoD.) Exhibit A-1 includes 95 sites which are smaller sites and may or may not be in the Baseline Report. The Baseline Report identifies 517 sites worldwide (exclusive of US Territories), but a count of the detail in the same report (pages DOD 70 thru DOD 85) resulted in a total of almost 600 sites. So How Much do These 883 Sites Cost Taxpayers Annually? The Report identifies ten Combatant Command Exercise and Engagement programs and lists the following nine: USAFRICOM (Africa); USCENTCOM (Kingdom of Jordan); USCYBERCOM (virtual environment); USEUCOM (Europe); USNORTHCOM (Homeland defense); USPACOM (Korea); USSOUTHCOM (Latin America); USSTRATCOM (nuclear deterrence); USTRANSCOM (Full spectrum global mobility) This report’s costs include: Fixed costs which are costs which do not change if a particular site is not occupied. Examples include: rent/mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, maintenance. Variable costs which do change based on occupancy. Examples include utility consumption, repair and maintenance, cleanup, trash removal, increased costs due to surrounding neighborhood activity. A Rand Corporation research report from 2013, acknowledged that overall costs are higher overseas even when taking host-nation support into account. I took a conservative approach in the following calculations. Personnel Of the roughly 2 million military personnel, including reserves and National Guard, approximately 12%, or 238,000 are deployed to overseas bases (outside of OCO.) Personnel includes base pay, payroll taxes, bonuses (sign on and incentive), pension, uniforms, transportation, basic training/boot camp, life insurance, education, weapon assignment, annual allowances for uniform and weapon upkeep. In order to calculate this cost, I started with the daily basic pay for military personnel, and built upon that cost with the aforementioned burdens, and pro-rated amounts for overseas costs. Annual Cost of Personnel .9 Billion Transportation Transportation costs include Army, Air Force, Marine, Navy and National Guard and represent costs to move personnel to overseas locations and back. According to the report, “Overseas Basing of US Military Forces, 2011”, average annual cost for overseas transportation per person was ,200, and varied depending on place of deployment. Annual Cost of Transportation $ 1.3 Billion Maintenance of Facilities The DoD occupies or maintains buildings, facilities, and linear structures worth over > Trillion worldwide. The value of the overseas portfolio is about 0 Billion, covering about 50,000 structures. Applying a standard no-less-than-one-percent-per-value of the asset, plus insurance, plus capital improvements, and contingency, I came up with annual cost of maintenance of overseas (including US Territories) bases. Annual Cost of Maintenance of Facilities $ 7.5 Billion Construction The 2019 DoD budget request includes an increase in the OCO budget of an additional Billion for facilities construction overseas. Previous and current year construction projects include: The Kaiserslautern Military Community Center in Germany, an 8 story, 844,000 square foot Air Force facility which includes a 350-room visiting quarters, a four-plex movie theatre, Power Zone, Outdoor Living, Toyland/Four Seasons, food court, new car sales and other vendors in an American-Style mall layout, and a two-story climbing wall. It is intended to house about 50,000 military members and their families. Construction costs are difficult to ascertain (because the Air Force is not tracking the total cost of this facility, which has experienced multiple construction-related delays, deficiencies, and overruns.) Total cost is expected to exceed 5 million. New construction of Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany is expected to be slightly less than > Billion (0 Million) and is expected to be completed in 2021. This hospital is expected to replace the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as the military’s main European medical facility. New construction of medical material warehouse at Kadena Air Base in Japan. Cost for this building is expected to be more than million. Total cost of construction for the 3 aforementioned facilities is over >