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America-India Defense Budget: America’s defense budget is $901 billion, which is 11 times more than India’s $78.5 billion budget. In America, the National Defense Authorization Act 2026 has been passed with an overwhelming majority in the House. Similarly, the government there has got this much budget. China’s defense budget is about 240 billion dollars.
America-India Defense Budget: America is unquestionably the world’s largest military power. This has been proved once again. In fact, the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US Parliament, on Wednesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act 2026 with an overwhelming majority. It was passed by a vote of 312-112. In this way, a record expenditure of 901 billion dollars (about Rs 76 lakh crore) on defense was approved. This is eight billion dollars more than President Donald Trump’s request of $892.6 billion given in May. This amount is much more than India’s defense budget. India’s defense budget is about 78 billion dollars. That means it is about 11 times more than India’s defense expenditure.
Now this bill will go to the Senate, where there is every possibility of its passing next week. After this it will become law for the 65th consecutive year. NDAA has never stopped since 1961. There are many important provisions in this mega bill of 3,086 pages. There is a provision to provide military aid to Ukraine worth 400-400 million dollars every year in 2026 and 2027.
Decision on actual expenditure later
However, at the insistence of Republican Speaker Mike Joe Johnson, the provision providing insurance coverage to military families for reproductive therapies such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer was removed. There was a long debate before voting on the bill. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that I support this bill, but I also have many concerns. MPs from both parties appealed to the members to pass it despite personal objections, because NDAA is the cornerstone of national security. It is worth noting that the NDAA only authorizes spending, the actual funding will come from a separate appropriations bill, which means how much of the $901 billion will actually be spent will be decided later. The rule to bring the bill to the floor before voting also passed by just 215-211. In a prolonged tussle, some Republican lawmakers changed their votes from no to yes, only then the bill could move forward.
India’s defense budget
India’s defense budget for fiscal year 2025-26 is Rs 6,81,210 crore (about US$78.5 billion). In this way, America’s defense budget is about 11 times more than that of India. According to the Defense Ministry of India, this budget focuses on modernization of the army, indigenous production and self-reliant India, but capital expenditure remains limited due to heavy expenditure on pensions and salaries. India’s defense budget is 13.5 percent of the total Union Budget and only 1.9 percent of the GDP. Of this, 26.4 percent (Rs 1.80 lakh crore) is capital expenditure, which is for new weapons procurement, research and infrastructure.
China’s defense budget
Questions have been raised on the figures regarding China’s defense budget. Despite this, China’s official defense budget is $246 billion, but the actual expenditure is said to be much higher. It is the country with the second largest military budget in the world after America.
