In 2015, US military spending accounted for roughly $600 billion dollars, and more than
half of federal discretionary spending.
Unsurprisingly, a huge portion of this budget goes towards researching and developing new
weapons, tanks, planes, and other very big, and very expensive projects.
So, we wanted to look at some of the most expensive military megaprojects of all time.
It’s easy to start with World War II.
That was the most expensive war in US history, with a price tag of roughly $4 trillion dollars,
adjusted for inflation.
But in fact, the most ambitiously costly project at the time was proposed by Nazi Germany.
A giant, 2,000 mile long wall of defense running along the Atlantic coast was meant to protect
all of occupied Europe from Allied invasion.
It reached from the top of Scandinavia down to the French-Spanish border, and used enough
steel to build 20,000 tanks.
Although a total cost for the project is unknown, just the portion covering France was estimated
to cost $200 billion dollars, adjusted for inflation.
Then there is the more modern American Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system.
As the threat of nuclear annihilation from countries like North Korea remains a constant
threat, the US has designed missiles to intercept nuclear weapons as they’re en-route.
It is one of the US’s most valued projects, and yet, despite nearly $300 billion dollars
in investments the system still doesn’t reliably shoot down moving targets.
Another huge chunk of American military money goes to maintaining its naval fleet.
One of their most advanced ships is the DDG-51 Guided Missile Destroyer.
It has anti-air, anti-submarine and anti-surface capabilities, and its development was reported
to cost $87.3 billion dollars in total.
Another Navy ship, the USS Gerald Ford, is the most expensive supercarrier ever built,
running at $13 billion dollars.
The carrier is so futuristic that it uses an electromagnetic field to catapult fighter
jets into the sky.
But neither of these expensive projects come close to rivaling the F-35 program.
In 2001, the Pentagon agreed to buy 2,500 new F-35 fighter jets.
Over the past decade and a half, the cost of the program has ballooned to over $400
billion.
Some estimates even say that the lifetime total cost could be one and a half trillion
dollars.
But as of now, it is already the most expensive military megaproject of all time.
Even the helmets for the jets cost half a million dollars each.
But most ironically, the F-35 program has been criticized since it’s inception, and
is now considered outdated, ineffective, and entirely too expensive.
But don’t worry, there is no doubt that the US or another country will far surpass
these current and past projects.
Military spending has skyrocketed, and the military-industrial complex suggests that
billions and trillions more are on the table.
On the upside, that probably means the coming of space weapons.
To learn more about the most expensive mega-projects in the world, watch our video.
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