[FH] GNP and defense budget

According to Jim Dunnigan's _How to Make War_ 1988 edition, the US GNP
is
(or was at that time) $6 trillion dollars, with an overall defense
budget of
approximately 7% GNP, with a world average = 5%, USSR  high at 14%
(obviously not a long-term good idea).	Dividing 6 trillion by a
population
of approximately 250 million, we come up with a per capita GNP of
$24,000.
An average 5% to defense means $1200 per person.  Multiply by, say, an
Alarishi population of 15 million, and you get a defense budget of $18
billion (somewhat more becuase the Alarishi spend a bit higher than
average
on defense).

Page 509 of the same book says that aircraft cost $1000/pound, armored
vehicles $20/pd and ships $60/pd.  Over a lifetime of 10-20 years, they
cost
2-4 times their acquisition cost, which works out to 20% of purchase
cost
per year.

(Also says a modern task force, 9 ships (one a CVA), 90 aircraft, 9000
men,
costs $11 billion.)

$18 billion divided by $120,000 / ton = 150,000 tons, which is the most
we
can purchase per year (with zero maintenance,  100% of the defense
budget
spent on new construction).  We could in theory maintain 750,000 tons,
if we
put everything into maintenance instead of construction.  And ignored
the
army and fixed defenses, R&D, logistics, etc.  Which is the sort of
thing
you hope your enemies do.

--Chris  DeBoe laserlight@cwix.com
Personal Site: www.angelfire.com/va/laserlight/index.html
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