The Cost of Empire: Up to $480 billion a year

Agence France Presse reports,

Spurred by the war on terror, US defence spending could balloon to a whopping $US480 billion a year in the next decade, as the United States moves to modernise its military and increase their pay, congressional budget analysts warned.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) based its projections yesterday on a long-term military buildup program that the administration of President George W Bush submitted to Congress last year along with its budget request for fiscal 2003.

The blueprint showcases a whole new generation of weapons, including space-based radar satellites, unmanned warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft, new surface ships, hi-tech combat vehicles for the Army, and a slew of new precision-guided munitions.

Under the program, defence spending would increase faster than inflation in the next few years, reaching $US408 billion by 2007, up from the $US359 billion authorised by Congress in the current fiscal year.