patrick.net

this will free up measly $750 million

MolotovCocktail says

MolotovCocktail says

Yawn: this will free up measly $750 million. Peanuts. Much ado about nothing.

The total comes to approximately $1.47 trillion, with the US accounting for about two-thirds. Note that these were mid-year estimates for 2024; actual final spending for that year (now available in 2025) ended up slightly higher overall due to adjustments in some countries, but the chart faithfully reflects the data as released at the time

Estimated Total for NATO Operations in Europe

Combining the above, the direct US spending attributable to military presence and NATO-related operations in Europe is approximately $19.3 billion for FY2024 ($14.6B basing + $3.6B EDI + $1.1B common contributions). This represents about 2% of the US's total $968 billion defense spending (as per NATO estimates, which include broader categories like veterans' benefits and pensions not in the core DoD budget).Note that this is a conservative estimate focused on direct costs—additional indirect spending (e.g., global R&D, procurement of equipment deployable to Europe, or portions of the $25.7 billion in total Overseas Operations Costs that support EUCOM) could push the figure higher, potentially to $20-30 billion when accounting for shared overhead. However, the DoD does not provide a fully itemized regional total, and much of US defense spending benefits NATO globally rather than being Europe-specific.