Hi Fuchs,

Thanks for the graphs.

From one of your links:

The upward trend in the DoD budget partly reflects decreased efficiency and a failure to make disciplined choices in procurement. It also reflects the decision to put the military to work in wars of a type for which it was not designed. Finally, it reflects increased readiness, activity, and capability. In some important respects, today’s US military is more powerful than its Cold War predecessor, even though the number of full-time military personnel is 30% less. Among the enhancements are a vast increase in its capacity to attack targets with aircraft and missiles. Also, its capacity to rapidly deploy troops and equipment has improved. In these and other ways, the power of the Pentagon has been re-inflated.
You and I have discussed this subject at some length before. One thing your graph is missing the growth of the operations and maintenance proportion of the DoD budget from a low of ~24% in the early 1960s to today's high of 45%. At the same time, the proportion of spending for military personnel has decreased from approximately 50% to today's 25% (even as your heritage foundation graph illustrates the per unit cost of servicemembers increased by 200%). Nine of the last ten years have seen the lowest military personnel spending 3-year averages since FY48. In contrast nine of ten highest years of O&M expenditures were between FY02 and FY14.