WORLD military spending hit a new record high last year with the United States accounting for 39 per cent of the global total, according to a new report.

Spending on the military soared for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 reaching an astonishing new high of $2,240 billion (£1,799bn).

By far the sharpest rise in spending, some 13 per cent, was in Europe and was largely accounted for by spending by both Russia and the Ukrainians.

Military spending by central and western European states totalled $345bn (£277bn). 

In real terms, spending by these states for the first time surpassed that in 1989, as the cold war was ending, and was 30 per cent higher than in 2013.

But by far the lion’s share of military spending was by the US.

The Pentagon war machine spent some $877bn (£704bn) in 2022, which was 39 per cent of total global military spending.

The 0.7 per cent real-terms increase in US spending would have been even higher had it not been for the highest levels of inflation since 1981.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) senior researcher Dr Nan Tian said: “The increase in the US’s military spending in 2022 was largely accounted for by the unprecedented level of financial military aid it provided to Ukraine.

“Given the scale of US spending, even a minor increase in percentage terms has a significant impact on the level of global military expenditure.”

US financial military aid to Ukraine totalled $19.9bn (£15.9bn) in 2022. 

Although this was the largest amount of military aid given by any country to a single beneficiary in any year since the cold war, it represented only 2.3 per cent of total US military spending.

The level of military spending has been a bonanza for US arms manufacturers. 

An Sipri report in December last year showed arms sales of the top 40 US arms manufacturers totalled $299bn (£239.8bn) in 2021.

During 2022, the US allocated $295bn (£236.6bn) to military operations and maintenance, $264bn (£211.7bn) to procurement and research and development and $167bn (£133.9bn) to military personnel.

According to the Pentagon’s own figures, the US has about 750 bases across the world, with at least 313 in east Asia alone.

In contrast, China has a small number of bases in the South China Sea and just one other elsewhere, in Djibouti.

It spent an estimated $292bn (£235.2bn) last year on its military, about three times less than the amount spent by the US.