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.

Eric J. Labs, an analyst in CBO’s National Security Division, testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security on May 7, 2024.

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.

In the President’s 2024 budget request, total military compensation is $551 billion, including veterans' benefits. That amount represents an increase of 134 percent since 1999 after removing the effects of inflation.

CBO estimates that eliminating the maintenance backlogs of roughly 20,000 buildings that the Navy uses and maintains in the United States would cost $17 billion. Renovating and modernizing the buildings would cost an additional $32 billion.

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.

Under the three alternatives in the Navy’s 2024 plan, total shipbuilding costs would average about $34 billion to $36 billion per year (in 2023 dollars) through 2053, CBO estimates, as the Navy built a fleet of 319 to 367 battle force ships.

CBO analyzes the Department of Defense’s plans for 2024 through 2028 as presented in the 2024 Future Years Defense Program. Under those plans, CBO projects, defense costs would increase by 10 percent between 2028 and 2038.

CBO analyzes funding for special and incentive pay for active-duty service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps and explores how those types of pay have been used to address personnel shortfalls.

The Defense Logistics Agency buys fuel and charges the military services for it. But volatile fuel costs can cause changes in rates that create budgetary challenges for the services. CBO examined new ways to budget for and price fuel.

CBO estimates that plans for U.S. nuclear forces, as described in the fiscal year 2023 budget and supporting documents, would cost $756 billion over the 2023–2032 period, $122 billion more than CBO’s 2021 estimate for the 2021–2030 period.

CBO provides an introduction to the basics of satellites and constellations, describes the reasons for and consequences of the projected growth in large constellations, and discusses the costs of fielding those constellations.

CBO reexamines the availability and use of the Department of Defense’s F-35 fighter aircraft and presents new findings on availability rates, flying hours, and effects of aging.

CBO compares the availability and use of the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter aircraft with the availability and use of their predecessor F/A-18C/D Hornets and other aircraft. Super Hornets have aged more adversely than the F/A-18C/Ds.

CBO analyzes the hypersonic missiles being developed by the U.S. military and compares them with less expensive existing or potential weapons that might fill similar roles, such as cruise missiles or ballistic missiles.

This update of CBO’s 2016 primer on the structure of the U.S. military describes the size, functions, and operation and support costs of every major element of the armed forces.