if you're a regular watcher of the
infographic show then you probably
already know a thing or two about
military hardware but do you know how
much it actually costs to use some of
those weapons I'll give you a hint it's
a lot military spending is constantly
under scrutiny and amid slashed budgets
in public pressure militaries are always
looking for ways to cut costs but
finding savings can be hard when the
cost of essential equipment and weapons
is so high let's start by taking a look
at how much it costs to use some of the
military's firearms militaries use many
different types of firearms a firearm is
any rifle shotgun or handgun that uses
gunpowder as a propellant but there are
also other types of guns such as air
guns that aren't technically firearms
firearms come in many different calibers
which is a measurement of the diameter
of the guns barrel and determines the
size of the ammunition that can be fired
from a particular firearm now that we've
cleared that up let's look at how much
it cost to use some of these firearms or
bang Bang's as they're called in
military slang one of the US Army's most
iconic firearms is the m16 rifle the m16
was in service for decades from Vietnam
until it was replaced by the m4 in the
1990s the m16 is a 5.56 by 45 millimeter
caliber semi-automatic assault rifle it
has a range of up to 3,600 metres and is
capable of firing 40 to 100 rounds per
minute
the m16 was replaced by the m4 carbine
in the 1990s it's basically a shortened
version of the m16 the weapons share 80%
of their parts in common and fire the
same caliber ammunition but because it
has a shorter barrel the m4 s effective
range is slightly lower the guns
themselves cost nearly $1,000 each and
ammunition costs more than 250 dollars
per thousand around case that may not
sound like much but at 25 cents a shot
that can add up quickly with a weapon
that's capable of firing up to a hundred
rounds a minute considering that the m16
and m4 have been the standard-issue
firearm for both the US Army and Navy
for decades it's safe to say that the
military has spent a small fortune on
them over the years if the cost of using
firearms didn't seem all that outrageous
just wait until you find out how much it
costs to use a heavy machine gun the m2
50 caliber heavy machine gun or the MA
deuce as its affectionately known in the
military was too
shortly after the first world war as an
anti-tank weapon one of the most popular
machine guns on the market the m2 is
currently in use in more than a hundred
countries around the world and is the
primary heavy machine gun of NATO
nations the gun itself costs fourteen
thousand dollars and a fifteen hundred
round belt of 50 Cal ammunition cost a
staggering six thousand five hundred
dollars or six dollars and fifty cents
per bullet the m2 is capable of firing
between 450 and 600 minutes which means
it could cost up to three thousand
dollars per minute to operate this
machine gun this may come as a bit of a
surprise but hand grenades are actually
one of the least expensive weapons to
use the US military pays about four
dollars each for m67 hand grenades the
m67 sometimes called the baseball
grenade because it resembles a ball and
is thrown by hand has a 15 meter injury
radius and a 5 meter fatality radius
better hope you have a good arm now
let's bring out the big guns
literally the term gun in the military
context always refers to a piece of
mortar or artillery never to a firearm
ground-based artillery is a huge expense
in most military budgets the term
artillery refers to an entire class of
heavy military weapons built to launch
munitions at long ranges a mortar is a
simple lightweight artillery gun that
can be carried by a man and deployed
anywhere a popular example of a mortar
gun is the well known rpg-7 anti-tank
rocket launcher the rpg-7 is a
muzzle-loaded shoulder fire rocket
launcher with a range of 920 meters the
rpg-7 can shoot a variety of rockets
second range and cost from a few hundred
to a few thousand dollars each
self-propelled howitzers are a class of
artillery weapon mounted on a mobile
system such as a tank howitzers are
characterized by their long range due to
the fact that the munitions are fired at
such a high angle the Hawkeye is one of
the lightest self-propelled howitzer
cones in use by the US military the
hakka is built into its own armored
vehicle chassis and takes a crew of
three to operate it has a maximum range
of more than 11 kilometres and it fires
a standard NATO 105 millimeter ammo one
of the key features of the Hawkeye is
its ability to rapid-fire 10 to 12
rounds per minute the 15 kilogram rounds
cost more than $300 each which means it
can cost more than $3,000 a minute to
operate this gun at
capacity the canine Thunder is South
Korea's version of a self-propelled
howitzer it takes a crew of five to
operate and it has an impressive range
of more than 30 kilometers they could
fire a variety of NATO's 155 millimeter
rounds including the jammer
rocket-assisted high-explosive
long-range rounds which cost a
staggering seven thousand dollars each
if you wouldn't talk of big bucks then
we have to look at the cost of some of
the ballistic missiles and anti-missile
systems used by militaries around the
world but what exactly is a missile by
its simplest definition a missile is a
guided airborne ranged weapon capable of
self propelled flight according to the
missile defense advocacy alliance part
of the flight of longer range ballistic
missiles may occur outside the
atmosphere and involve the re-entry of
the missile missiles that are not
ballistic our aerodynamic operating in
the atmosphere aerodynamic missiles
include cruise and air-to-air missiles
missiles come in an endless variety of
configurations from short-range mobile
launchers to huge static installations
on land and on ships to a variety of
aircraft mounted options with so much
public pressure to keep costs down
today's military is focused on cutting
costs without sacrificing performance
this has led to an explosion of growth
in the small to mid-range smart weapon
sector using off-the-shelf materials and
readily available technology although
these new smart weapons are cheaper than
traditional cruise missiles and we'll
get to those in a moment
they are definitely still far from cheap
take for example the javelin the javelin
is currently one of the most advanced
man portable shoulder fire anti-tank
missiles in the world it has a range of
more than two kilometers is capable of
destroying any known modern tank and can
even be used to target low-flying
helicopters it fires the eight point
four kilogram tandem heat warhead at a
cost of one hundred and forty seven
thousand dollars for a single rocket at
one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars
each the Hellfire rocket is a little
easier on the budget but still far from
cheap the eight kilogram Hellfire is one
of the most widely used and powerful
air-to-ground rockets in the world
the name Hellfire came from the fact
that this 50 kilogram rocket is heli
fired or launched from a helicopter
the advanced precision kill weapon
system - rocket was designed to be a
smaller version of the traditional 70
millimeter rocket and it must be
considered a flaw
in by military standards and only
$28,000 per rocket the rocket boasts
accuracy to within one meter thanks to
its advanced laser seeking head that can
pinpoint a target and adjust the Rockets
fins mid-flight considering what we just
heard the spike missile must seem like
an absolute steal at only $5,000 apiece
this shoulder-fired anti-tank missile
system is capable of destroying light
targets with its three kilogram
projectile the baguette sized projectile
is equipped with a smart optical
guidance system that locks on to its
target for incredible accuracy one of
the most mysterious anti-tank guided
missiles out there is the Israeli Nimrod
missile no details of its development or
combat history are available but we do
know that it has a 26 kilometer range
even its cost is a closely guarded
secret but experts estimate that it's in
the hundred thousand dollar range
the US military still has a number of
the traditional long-range large-caliber
ballistic cruise missiles deployed and
the cost of using these things is truly
mind-blowing the tomahawk bgm 109
missile is one of the most well-known
and most combat-tested cruise missiles
out there the versatile medium to long
range subsonic cruise missile can be
launched from the ground from a ship or
a submarine or from an aircraft a single
Tomahawk missile costs one and a half
million dollars but that's just the tip
of the iceberg when it comes to missiles
the US military employs a three-layer
anti-ballistic missile defense system to
protect themselves from enemy missile
attacks the Patriot pac-3 missile is the
US military's last line of defense
against a ballistic missile attack if a
missile somehow makes it through the
first two layers of the USS three layer
defense system the short-range Patriot
mobile anti-missile system is supposed
to take it out the Patriot comes in a
self-contained unit and an initial cost
of forty five million dollars the
launcher is mounted on a two axle
trailer with its own power plant and
fuel supply it has a 40 kilometer range
and it's capable of reaching 20
kilometers in altitude the Patriot takes
30 minutes to prepare its 16 missiles to
fire and fully replacing all 16 missiles
costs more than four million dollars the
fad missile is another important
component of the us's anti-missile
defense system that stands for theater
high altitude area defense and it's a
longer range anti-ballistic missile
system meant to destroy enemy missile
as they reenter the atmosphere thad
missiles have a range of 150 to 200
kilometers the launchers are mounted on
heavy high mobility trucks each capable
of carrying 8 missiles at a time
fully reloading a single launcher
vehicle costs upward of 12 million
dollars of course we saved the most
impressive for last the Trident
2 is by far the most expensive weapon to
use and the US military has hundreds of
them the Trident is a submarine-launched
intercontinental ballistic missile with
a mind-blowing range of nearly 8,000
kilometers the u.s. currently deploys 14
submarines each carrying 24 of those
missiles at a staggering cost of 30
million dollars each that means there
are more than 10 billion dollars worth
of missiles deployed in the ocean as we
speak
let's hope we don't need to replace any
of those anytime soon now that we know
how much it costs to fire some of the
Army Navy and Air Force's most
impressive weapons let's take a look at
how much it costs to run the planes
ships and ground equipment that carry
all of those weapons the f-35 fighter
jet gets a lot of attention for its
outrageous sticker price of eighty to
one hundred and fifteen million dollars
but the operating costs are truly
staggering it costs forty four thousand
dollars an hour to fly an f-35 jet over
its 8,000 hour life span that adds up to
more than 350 million dollars in total
lifetime flying costs aircraft carriers
are a signature of the USS military
might and they are also one of the most
expensive lines in their defense budget
not only are the aircraft carriers
themselves incredibly expensive think
fifteen billion dollars for a single one
of the new for class carriers currently
being built but it costs around six and
a half million dollars a day to run a
Carrier Strike Group a strike group
includes the carrier itself the warships
and submarines that escorted the
aircraft on board and more than 6,000
crew needed to man the Strike Group on a
busy day the US military might employ
four of these strike groups at one time
at a daily cost of more than 25 million
dollars although weapons technology is
becoming cheaper the cost of using some
of the military's top weapons is still
staggeringly high hopefully that means
militaries will think twice about using
some of those weapons so what are your
thoughts on how much it costs to use the
weapons were you surprised by the cost
of any
the weapons in particular be sure and
let us know your thoughts in the
comments and if you thought this video
was interesting be sure to check out
some of our other enlightening military
videos like this one title of USA vs.
Iran who would win or perhaps you might
find this one interesting as always
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