Global military spending reached a new record of almost $2.9 trillion in 2025—the 11th consecutive year of growth—even as the United States recorded its sharpest single-year decline in decades, accord to a new [https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2026/global-military-spending-rise-continues-european-and-asian-expenditures-surge] report published on April 26 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The increase over the previous year was 2.9 percent, smaller than the 9.7 percent recorded in 2024, accounted for by a 9.2 percent drop in U.S. military spending.
“At $954 billion, military spending by the United States was 7.5 per cent lower in 2025 than in 2024. The drop was primarily due to the fact that no new financial military assistance for Ukraine was approved during the year. This was in sharp contrast to the previous three years, when a total of $127 billion was approved,” the report says. “However, the USA increased investments in both nuclear and conventional military capabilities to maintain dominance in the Western Hemisphere and deter China in the Indo-Pacific, which are key goals of the new National Security Strategy.”
“‘The decline in US military expenditure in 2025 is likely to be short-lived,’ said Nan Tian, Programme Director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. ‘Spending approved by the US Congress for 2026 has risen to over $1 trillion, a substantial increase from 2025, and could rise further to $1.5 trillion in 2027 if President Trump’s latest budget proposal is accepted.’”
