Tag: defense budget

South Korea has finalized its 2015 defense budget that calls for total spending of 37.4 trillion won (equivalent to US$33.6 billion) a 4.9 percent increase from 2014. "The increase will improve the welfare of servicemen and enhance combat capabilities" The Korean defense ministry said.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has announced plans to increase defense spending in 2013 by 10.7 percent, to $115.7 billion. Actual spending is believed by some to be as much as 50 percent higher than the numbers publicly announced - amounting to about a third of the annual US defense budget.

In a quiet affair without fanfare, President Barack Obama signed into law the $633 billion Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on 31 December while vacationing in his home state of Hawaii. While not an appropriations act providing the funding to pay for the provisions contained in the law, the NDAA does outline the specific projects and programs the Department of Defense (DoD) is authorized to pursue. Actual funding authorization will be included in an appropriations bill yet to be finalized.

On 9 January, the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced that a far-reaching economic stimulus package will include an additional $2.1 billion in defense spending to be initiated within the next few months. This supplementary funding is in addition to the existing funding previously programmed into the defense budget for 2012-2013, but is separate from an increase in defense spending requested for the next fiscal year that was announced on 8 January.