Self -defense expenses

In 2015, states began to spend more on military needs than a year before, follows from the report of the Stockholm International Institute for Research of Peace Problems (Sipri). It would seem that it was not surprising, but until then three years in a row, the costs were constantly reduced, so we can talk about the breakdown of the trend.

The total amount of expenditures in the world in 2015, compared with the previous year, increased by 1% and amounted to $ 1.676 trillion. Growth occurred mainly due to the countries of Asia and Oceania, Eastern and Central Europe, as well as the countries of the Middle East. In fact, all regions are listed where an increase in tension has been observed recently.

However, the United States still remain the leader, although Washington has reduced its military expenses by 2.4%, to $ 596 billion (36% of world expenses). China increased expenses by 7.4%, to $ 215 billion (13% in total expenses) and deservedly took the second line.

FIM-92 STINGER RAKELLAY ALLOW COMPOSITION OF THE STUDENT PLAMS based on US Air Force Iglin, March 2016

Compared to last year, the country's places that occupy the third and fourth lines, Saudi Arabia and Russia changed their places. Riades planned to reduce defense expenses in 2015, but the war in Yemen did not allow this to do this, as a result they grew by 5.7%, to $ 87.2 billion (5.2% of all world's expenses).

Russia is supplanted from third place, its expenses reached only $ 66.4 billion (4% of world expenses). Sipri experts note that Russia's military spending turned out to be lower than planned due to the fall of the ruble and economic problems.

Closes the first five of Great Britain ($ 55.5 billion). Among the 15 countries with the largest military budgets, Australia (7.8%) showed the greatest growth, and the most serious reduction was Italy (minus 9.9%).

Last decade, many countries sharply increased military expenses, this became possible thanks to an increase in prices for minerals. Accordingly, since 2014, many oil producing countries reduce the budgets of defense departments, and Venezuela (64%) and Angola (42%) have shown significant reductions from the amye in 2015.

Some oil producing countries, however, continued to increase defense expenses, this is Algeria, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Russia and Saudi Arabia. All these countries are either fighting or are in a stressful region.

In general, the growth of tension makes many countries reconsider their priorities. So, the combined expenses of the countries of Western and Central Europe decreased in 2015 by 0.2%. But in central Europe, the costs of military needs increased by 13% - they are invested in defense in addition to Russia and Ukraine of the country that borders them, namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Romania.

The special forces of the GROM special forces (Poland) at the NATO joint exercises in Portugal, October 2015 Photo: Allied Joint Force Comand Brunssum

And they can be understood. The other day, the Commander -in -Chief of the United Armed Forces of NATO in Europe, Philip Bridlav said in an interview with Estonian television that Russia has created a strong army in recent years. “In the last five years (Putin) have made large investments in his armed forces. He created good ground forces. You saw him an Air Force in Syria, where they passed tests. He also achieved a powerful high -range missile potential, the missiles were launched from both ships and from submarines, ”the general said.