The Pros And Cons Of The US Army After The Cold War

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has had the world’s largest, highest trained, and best equipped military. Once the United States hit the top, it kept on going. As of 2015, the federal spending budget for the military was 598.5 billion dollars. That is 54% of federal spending each year spent on the military. With that amount of money coming in each year, the military should have already developed consistent methods of stopping an enemy nuclear strike, or produce robot soldiers so American lives will not be lost. But no, the military still buys 475.2 million dollars worth of World War Two Artillery pieces called Howitzers. They are difficult to move and if the United States is attacked, chances are it will not be from a land invasion. The United States spends too much money on outdated weapons

One example is when the “DOD [Department of Defense] purchased $16 billion worth of ammunition that it didn’t actually need” (Leo). It then used $1 billion to destroy that ammunition because it had grown old and obsolete, or had been banned by international treaties. The military is also putting $80 million into a new invention called the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit also known as TALOS. This suit would give soldiers heavy armor that not only protects them, but would allow them to carry hundreds of pounds of gear on the battlefield (Leo). Researchers say it is doubtful that TALOS would ever work because a soldier would not be able to move wearing heavy armor that the suit is made of. If expensive plans that will not work get $80 million for research, what stops the military from wasting even more money? When twenty new planes for the Afghan Air Force were constructed at $500 million, the defense department immediately scrapped six-teen of them (Leo). And instead of getting a good price for scrapping new, advanced jets, only $32 thousand was