U.S. Dept. of Defense and Cuba: Some general comparisons
By Nelson P. Valdés
The following information originates in several sources [found as hyperlinks]. Most of the material comes from the U.S. Department of Defense, Base Structure Report, FY-2009.
The Pentagon has:
— 539,000 facilities (buildings, structures and linear structures)
— 5,570 military sites
— Occupies 29 million acres or about 120,000 km2, which is almost equivalent to half of the United Kingdom, or all of North Korea, or the state of Mississippi or New York.
[The total land area of Cuba is 109,886 km2. Consequently the Pentagon has more land than the entire Cuban republic.] (*)
— The number of U.S. military sites increased in 2008 by 150.
— Total number of U.S. overseas military bases: 716 [does not include secret bases]
— Overseas military bases in “territories” [Guam, etc): 121
— Total Overseas Pentagon military bases: 837 bases outside U.S. borders (Fiscal Year 2009) [does not include secret bases in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Hungary, Austria, Israel, Bulgaria, Qatar, etc.].
— Number of countries in the world: 192
— Number of countries with US military bases: 150 estimated. Note that all sites are not listed [See “Explanation” below]
The Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2010 was $663.8 billion. The budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) included $533.8 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $130 billion to support overseas contingency operations, primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. The proposed DoD base budget represents an increase of $20.5 billion over the $513.3 billion enacted for fiscal 2009. This was an increase of 4 percent, or 2.1 percent real growth after adjusting for inflation. [1]
— Only 20 countries have a Gross Domestic product that is larger than the yearly Pentagon budget: China, Japan, India, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, Canada, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Australia, Taiwan, Netherlands and Poland.
— The Pentagon budget for 2010 is larger than the Gross Domestic Product of each of the following countries: Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Thailand, South Africa, Egypt, Pakistan, Colombia, Belgium, Malaysia, Venezuela, Sweden, Greece, Ukraine, Nigeria, Austria, Philippines, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Norway, Romania, Czech Republic, Peru, Chile, Vietnam, Singapore, Portugal, Algeria, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Israel, Hungary, Finland, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Slovakia, New Zealand, Belarus, Angola, Cuba, Ecuador, Syria, Bulgaria, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Croatia, Tunisia, Serbia, Dominican Republic, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Oman, Lithuania, Kenya, Slovenia, Yemen, Burma, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Lebanon, El Salvador, Bolivia, Uruguay, Cameroon, Uganda, North Korea, Luxembourg, Latvia, Panama, Ghana.
Cote d’Ivoire, Honduras, Jordan, Nepal, Turkmenistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Trinidad and Tobago, Paraguay, Estonia, Cambodia, Botswana, Bahrain, Jamaica, Equatorial Guinea, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Albania, Senegal, Georgia, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Brunei, Mozambique, Macedonia, Armenia, Macau, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Nicaragua, Chad, Mauritius, Republic of the Congo, Mali, Laos, Namibia, Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea, Iceland, Benin, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Malawi, Kyrgyzstan, Haiti, Moldova, Guinea, Niger, Malta, Rwanda, Mongolia, Bahamas, Montenegro, Mauritania, Swaziland, Somalia, Barbados, Togo, Kosovo, French Polynesia, Bermuda, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Liechtenstein, Eritrea, Andorra, Fiji, Bhutan, Lesotho, Central African republic, New Caledonia, Burundi, Guyana, Netherlands Antilles, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Belize, Timor Leste, The Gambia, Aruba, Cayman Islands, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Saint Lucia,Maldives, San Marino, Antigua and Barbuda, Cape Verde, Virgin Islands, Solomon Islands, Liberia, Grenada, Greenland, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Gibraltar, Samoa, Faroe Islands, Vanuatu, Monaco, Mayotte, Northern Mariana Islands, Western Sahara, Guinea Bissau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Comoros, Dominica, Kiribati, American Samoa, Tonga, Sao Tome and Principe, Micronesia, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cook Islands, Palau, Marshall islands, Anguilla, Falkland Islands, Nauru, Wallis and Futuna, Saint Pierre and Miguelon, Montserrat, Saint Helena, Tuvalu, Niue, Tokelau. [2]
— The Cuban military budget in 2008 was estimated at $1.7 billion or 0.1% of the world expenditures on the military; it was 0.2% of the U.S. military budget. [3]
— The Pentagon has 183,799 “structures” throughout the world [not counting U.S. territory] – valued at $157 BILLION DOLLARS.
— The US military “manages” and “controls” 28.5 million acres of land [115,335 square kilometers]. Cuba, by comparison has 108,886 square kilometers.
— Number of formal U.S. military personnel: 2.5 million.
— The Pentagon military budget does not include all the money given to the agencies that engage in espionage, which is classified. [4]
EXPLANATION:
“To be listed sites should meet a predetermined size and value criteria. To qualify for entry in the published report, a site located in the United States must be larger than 10 acres AND have a PRV (Total Plant Replacement Value) greater than $10 million. If the site is located in a foreign country, it must be larger than 10 acres OR have a PRV greater than $10 million to be shown as a separate entry. PRV for all facilities (buildings, structures, and utilities) is the cost to replace the current physical plant (facilities and supporting infrastructure) using today’s construction costs (labor and materials) and standards (methodologies and codes).” [5]
(*) Note from the Author: The National Organization of Stadistics provides the the figure of 109,886 square kilometers. See: Ver: http://www.one.cu/anuariopdf/capitulo1/0102.pdf
[1]Source: http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=12652
[2] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html
[3] http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2009Baseline.pdf
[4] http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2009Baseline.pdf
[5] http://www.inteldaily.com/news/178/ARTICLE/8942/2008-12-09.html
