The United States continues to lead the world in defence spending, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a U.S.-based non-partisan research organisation. In fact, the U.S outspends Russia, the next highest spender, by more than 800 percent. In 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available, the U.S. expenditure was 696.3 billion dollars, followed by Russia’s 86 billion and China’s 83.5 billion. The U.S. defence budget is 15 times that of Japan, 47 times that of Israel, and nearly 73 times that of Iran. Not only does U.S. spending dwarf that of other nations, but it has also grown in recent years. The budget for fiscal year 2011 is 720 billion dollars, up 67 percent from 2001’s 432 billion, accounting for inflation. In a recent speech to the U.S. Navy League, U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates pointed out examples of the effects of his country’s disproportionate spending. The U.S. Navy can carry twice as many aircrafts at sea as the rest of the world put together, he said, and the navy’s overall power is estimated to exceed that of the next […]