[colonCapitalDee]

We spend about 3.5% of GDP on defense [1], and coincidentally about 3.5% on R&D [2]. People tend to wildly overestimate how large the modern US defense budget is. It's only around 13% of federal spending [3]!

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locat... [2] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS?locat... [3] https://federalbudgetinpictures.com/where-does-all-the-money...

[itishappy]

National Defense: 13.9%

R&D: ???

https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function

Defense: $813 billion

https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudg...

R&D: $205 billion

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ap_18_...

I'm clearly missing something. I assume some of that Defense budget is R&D?