defence spending

"I think Australians should be worried that this could be Labor softening us up for some cut in defence spending, " he said.

Like others in western Europe, it had slashed post-war defence spending to pay for a burgeoning welfare state.

It needs to rein in its defence spending, which is currently equivalent to that of the next 20 countries combined.

A decade ago, Mr Rasmussen said, the US accounted for about half of the defence spending of all Nato countries.

Robert Gates described America's defence spending over the past decade as a gusher, and one that had to be turned off.

Comparisons of defence spending to gross domestic product do not necessarily indicate a gathering storm of Chinese militarism.

US defence spending is levelling off and appears to be on the brink of a potentially significant downturn.

China's ambitious military modernisation programme and growing defence spending has caused alarm around the region and in Washington.

Defence spending is therefore seen not just as patriotism, but as an important source of jobs.

But, with defence spending under pressure, it looked to many as if a disillusioned Lord Drayson had had enough.

Defence spending will rise to more than $5 billion a year from next month.

But despite this increasingly tense regional climate, experts agree that the days of the sharpest defence spending hikes are over.

Yet its defence spending this year will be around $63 billion, three times as much as that of the new NATO members combined.

But when defence spending is compared to the overall size of each country's economy, Saudi Arabia tops the list.

When Republicans were recently offered a choice between preserving tax cuts and maintaining defence spending, they opted for the tax cuts.

Defence spending is qualitatively different: decisions taken today affect national security for decades to come.

As austerity measures, including cuts in defence spending, begin to bite, orders for its flagship Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft have waned.

He warned that Nato risked becoming a military irrelevance unless European countries increased their defence spending.

A clash between the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition on defence spending.

For a start, the impression that China's defence spending has soared is misleading.

The minister's plan to reduce defence spending was vetoed by the president.

President Ronald Reagan spoke about beefing up defence spending, conveniently flanked by soldiers in uniform.

The allocation is a 10 per cent increase over actual defence spending in FY09 and accounts for 8 per cent of the total national expenditure.

China has a fairly low level of defence spending compared with that announced by other countries.

In one respect his difference with Mr Obama is sharp as a pin. Defence spending is inviolable.

Defence spending seems a waste of money on costly foreign-made kit.

Discretionary defence spending will add $284 billion to the deficit over the same period.

Defence spending is particularly precious to Conservative voters.

Not even a perfunctory attempt is made to cut America's defence spending. Mr Ryan is a Republican, after all.

There has been some last-minute panic. Liam Fox has been given a lifeline. Defence spending won't be cut as much as originally proposed.

BAE is also set to get a bigger share of Britain's defence spending than its current two-thirds.

But defence spending may be easier to cut than "entitlements" .

American defence spending has ballooned with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are lobbying for a reduction in defence spending.

Of the proposed cuts in defence spending will meet later today.

The project would entail a huge increase in defence spending.

Third, global defence spending will continue to grow rapidly.

As a share of the budget, defence spending has shrunk since 2001.

The two countries account for around half of all defence spending in the European Union.

Critically, Mr Cameron expects defence spending to start growing again in real terms after 2015.

Mr Romney would also raise defence spending to 4% of GDP from 3%, where it is now heading.

He may relish the chance to cut defence spending and blame the Republicans for it.

Sometimes it has worked: defence spending, for example, was critical to the early development of computers, semiconductors and the internet.

Since 1970 America's fleets of combat aircraft and major warships have shrunk, even as defence spending rose (see chart 3).

If Britain cannot increase defence spending, then it must scale back less urgent projects, such as new fighter jets and aircraft carriers.

For many years the strain in defence spending has been relieved by supplemental spending.

Defence spending was much slower in the first quarter than anticipated, subtracting 0. 69 percentage points from output.

Japan has cut its defence spending in recent years, to just 1% of GDP.

Official military spending is $48bn, or 7 per cent of US defence spending.

Spain cut defence spending by 9% this year; Italy will chop by 10% next.

And its most recent budget would increase defence spending by just 1. 5%, a far cry from the 9% average growth in 2006-09.

now his greatest fear is that defence spending will be cut to curb the budget deficit.

Defence spending in a time of austerity

But Mr Gates knows that after a decade of ever-rising defence spending, "the gusher has been turned off" ;

announce a 17. 6 per cent rise in defence spending to speed up modernisation of the military