I wouldn't include Veteran Affairs since most other countries count pensions and healthcare separately. But National Guard funding should definitively be there. As well as some of the DHS funding. The US keeps using the US Coast Guard for forward deployed missions very far away from their own shores for example.
PLA (strategic) news, pics, and videos
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The commonly cited SIPRI military expenditure database counts military retirement benefits (as well as spending for PAP, coast guard, etc.) in their estimate of Chinese military spending but do not include them for the US (or most other countries). The $1.5 trillion number for total US military spending is from applying the same methodology that SIPRI applies to Chinese military spending.
Also, the high amount of US Veteran Affairs spending is the direct result of all the wars that the US fought since 9/11, with the majority of the expenses going to taking care of veterans with long term disability and health issues suffered in those wars. As a result of these wars, the US VA budget ballooned from $45 billion in FY 2001 to a requested .
The US Coast Guard have fought in every major US war since WW2, including in Afghanistan, a landlocked country.
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The new Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian type 003 went to sea and began its first sea trials. Fujian Type 003 is China's third aircraft carrier and the first designed and built by China. Construction of the 4th aircraft carrier has already begun. Unlike previous aircraft carriers, the ship is equipped with three electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft. The Fujian aircraft carrier has a length of 316 meters and a displacement of about 80,000 tons, the power plant with a capacity of 220,000 hp is equipped with steam turbines and has 8 boilers. The ship will presumably carry 50 J-15 aircraft, possibly fifth-generation J-31 fighters as well as UAVs. Upon completion of the test, the formation of the third Chinese aircraft carrier group, consisting of Type 55 destroyers and Type 54 frigates, will begin.
Sounded like: You (U), JAP!
An American perspective (quoting Chinese article) on PLA's progress on Joint Logistics
In mid-February it was reported that a unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force was receiving aviation fuel and other supplies from a supply base of the PLA Army. The report provides more evidence that the PLA is improving its joint logistics capability, as previously assessed by CASI.[1]
The report was published in Liberation Army News (also known as PLA Daily), the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, which is equivalent to the U.S. Defense Department. The aforementioned PLA Air Force unit is an unspecified field station of the Western Theater Air Force.[2] Field stations are combat support units, not facilities.
According to the report, although the airfield that the field station services is near a PLA Army supply base, in the past only army aviation units could use the aviation fuel that is stored at the base, so the field station could only receive fuel by trucking it from a PLA Air Force oil depot “through many places over tens of kilometers.”[3] This inefficiency was resolved by the two services’ agreeing that the supply base would supply aviation fuel to the field station through a pipeline that was subsequently lain.[4] It was also agreed that the supply base would supply uniforms and other unspecified provisions.[5] The success of recently conducted “comprehensive training” where the field station operates was attributed to the army’s supply of fuel.[6]
The fact that all this was reported in the first place indicates how unusual it is, so this report does not indicate that the PLA’s capacity for joint logistics is high. In fact, the opposite conclusion is probably more accurate. Instead, what this report demonstrates is that units in the PLA are beginning to overcome what were once insurmountable barriers separating the services, and the PLA published this report to encourage units throughout the force to similarly work with units in other services. Such a cultural change will take time, but it seems to be underway.
In mid-February it was reported that a unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force was receiving aviation fuel and other supplies from a supply base of the PLA Army. The report provides more evidence that the PLA is improving its joint logistics capability, as previously assessed by CASI.[1]
The report was published in Liberation Army News (also known as PLA Daily), the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, which is equivalent to the U.S. Defense Department. The aforementioned PLA Air Force unit is an unspecified field station of the Western Theater Air Force.[2] Field stations are combat support units, not facilities.
According to the report, although the airfield that the field station services is near a PLA Army supply base, in the past only army aviation units could use the aviation fuel that is stored at the base, so the field station could only receive fuel by trucking it from a PLA Air Force oil depot “through many places over tens of kilometers.”[3] This inefficiency was resolved by the two services’ agreeing that the supply base would supply aviation fuel to the field station through a pipeline that was subsequently lain.[4] It was also agreed that the supply base would supply uniforms and other unspecified provisions.[5] The success of recently conducted “comprehensive training” where the field station operates was attributed to the army’s supply of fuel.[6]
The fact that all this was reported in the first place indicates how unusual it is, so this report does not indicate that the PLA’s capacity for joint logistics is high. In fact, the opposite conclusion is probably more accurate. Instead, what this report demonstrates is that units in the PLA are beginning to overcome what were once insurmountable barriers separating the services, and the PLA published this report to encourage units throughout the force to similarly work with units in other services. Such a cultural change will take time, but it seems to be underway.
PLA's perspective of division & integration of intelligent combat command
Decentralize reconnaissance and fuse intelligence
Make separate decisions and integrate plans
Division of combat plan, consistent with Commander's intention
Distribution control, aggregate performance
Agreed, they still have enough authority and power to perform military operations, and only possibly reduced their political authority.