Can The U.S. Afford Its Military Aid Promises?

U.S. defense spending and military aid costs are adding up. President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion U.S. military aid package in April 2024, allocating funding to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. This is on top of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024, which authorized military spending of a record $886 billion. U.S. military spending and aid packages bolster the American defense industry. “People think we’re sending a big check to Ukraine”, Gregory Hayes, CEO of RTX, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “The fact is what most of that money will do will go to support American defense industries here in the U.S."

The five largest U.S. defense companies, Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, had Department of Defense contracts totaling more than $118 billion in fiscal year 2022. “There’s a lot of foreign countries that get aid from the United States that’s predicated upon using that aid to buy U.S. hardware,” said Ken Herbert, aerospace and defense analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told CNBC.

Watch this video to learn more about where the U.S. sends military aid and personnel and how defense spending impacts the world at large.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:44 Chapter 1 - Where the U.S. sends money
5:28 Chapter 2 - U.S. defense companies
8:37 Chapter 3 - Boots on the ground

Produced by: Shawn Baldwin
Edited by: Andrea Miller
Animation: Jason Reginato
Supervising Producer: Lindsey Jacobson
Additional Footage: Getty Images