Military Spending

Go Go Gadget Military Industrial Complex!

STOCKHOLM - World military spending rose for a sixth year running in 2004, growing by 5 percent to $1.04 trillion on the back of “massive” U.S. budgetary allocations for its war on terror, a leading research institute said on Tuesday.

But world military expenditure was still 6 percent below all-time highs recorded in 1987-88 toward the end of the Cold War, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual yearbook.

With expenditure of $455 billion, the United States accounted for almost half the global figure, more than the combined total of the 32 next most powerful nations, said SIPRI, which is widely recognized for the reliability of its data.