Defense and National Security

In the President’s 2025 budget request, total military compensation is $600 billion, including veterans' benefits. That amount represents an increase of 162 percent since 1980 (and 151 percent since 1999) after removing inflation’s effects.

Under the Navy’s 2025 shipbuilding plan, total shipbuilding costs would average about $40 billion per year (in 2024 dollars) through 2054, CBO estimates, as the Navy built a fleet of 390 battle force ships.

CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their estimated effects on the federal budget. This report presents 76 options for altering spending or revenues to reduce federal budget deficits over the next decade.

CBO analyzes the Department of Defense’s plans for 2025 to 2029 as presented in the 2025 Future Years Defense Program. Under those plans, CBO projects, defense costs would increase by 11 percent between 2029 and 2039.

Of the rotary-wing aircraft operated by the Army, the Department of the Navy (DoN), and the Air Force, the Army’s are the most numerous and have had the greatest availability rates. But DoN’s aircraft have flown the most hours per aircraft.

In analyzing the availability and use of aircraft by the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2023, CBO found that the number of manned aircraft has decreased and availability has increased. Average flying hours per aircraft have fallen since 2011.

CBO estimates that the cost of deferred maintenance for more than 100,000 buildings maintained by the active components of the military services in the United States and its territories was about $50 billion in 2020.

CBO estimates that a three-ship Polar Security Cutter program would cost $5.1 billion in 2024 dollars—about 60 percent more than the Coast Guard’s current estimate. Operating those three ships would cost $12.4 billion through 2063.

CBO describes economic outcomes of veterans who are Black, male, and working age and whose service began during or after 1990. CBO compares the outcomes of that group with outcomes of Black nonveterans and White veterans from 2017 to 2019.

CBO estimates that construction of 18 medium landing ships would cost between $6.2 billion and $7.8 billion in 2024 dollars. CBO’s estimates range from two to roughly three times the Navy’s current estimates.

Between 1980 and 2022, the shipbuilding composite index grew an average of 1.2 percentage points faster per year than the GDP deflator did. Looking ahead, a gap of roughly 1 percentage point would be consistent with historical experience.

CBO compares the housing standards used to determine the military’s basic allowance for housing (BAH) with the housing rented by comparable civilians. CBO also compares BAH rates with the rental costs paid by those civilians.

CBO compared the earnings, personal income, and household income of working-age male veterans who received disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs with those of veterans who did not receive such payments.

This tool allows the user to see the effects on the Department of Defense’s total operation and support costs and on the size of the military of adding or subtracting tanks, ships, aircraft, and other units.