Secret overseas base spending likely exceeds the official estimate.

Evidence

Not surprisingly, the Pentagon tally omits the cost of secret bases and classified programs overseas. In 2012, the Pentagon’s classified budget was estimated at 51 billion. Applying the OCS methodology, I focused on the operations and maintenance spending portion of that total, which was estimated at 15.8 billion. As elsewhere, I conservatively estimate the overseas portion of that spending at 15 percent (the percentage of base sites overseas), adding $2.4 billion to the cost of bases abroad. Since classified spending is more likely to take place overseas than domestically, this is almost surely an underestimate. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 639

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: What share of classified Pentagon spending actually goes overseas? The 15 percent floor is admittedly crude.

Related

• Official base cost tallies exclude billions in classified overseas programs (similarity 0.96)
• Official Pentagon spending figures on overseas bases are underestimates. (similarity 0.89)
• Official Pentagon figures understate overseas base costs by over fivefold (similarity 0.88)
• Overseas base spending exceeds every federal agency’s budget except Defense. (similarity 0.87)
• True overseas base costs exceed the official Pentagon total by over threefold (similarity 0.87)
• The Pentagon legally must report total overseas base spending each year (similarity 0.86)
• Independent estimates put overseas base costs tenfold above the Pentagon’s figure (similarity 0.86)
• Overseas bases and troops cost around $136 billion in 2014 (similarity 0.85)
• Official overseas base costs undercount true spending by more than threefold. (similarity 0.85)
• Independent estimates of overseas base costs exceed official figures tenfold (similarity 0.84)
• The Pentagon spent roughly $385 billion on overseas contractor work from 2001 to 2013 (similarity 0.84)
• Official overseas military cost reports omit hundreds of millions in allied spending (similarity 0.83)
• Official overseas base costs for 2012 totaled 22.7 billion dollars (similarity 0.83)
• US overseas bases cost taxpayers at least $71.8 billion annually (similarity 0.83)
• Official overseas base cost figures exclude all war-zone maintenance spending (similarity 0.82)