Our Military Budget should be 3.2% of GDP

When I proposed that the Philippines should make an effort to acquire the F-35 as our MRF, the prevailing negative feedback I got is that we cannot simply afford it.

This got me thinking....

How much can we really afford?

Have we already maxed-out our military spending potential?

So I checked out the 2014 military spending stats from the World Bank, and here it is:

WORLD RANK-COUNTRY-GDP%

1-Oman-11.8%

2-Saudi Arabia-10.8%

7-Israel-5.2%

12-Russian Fed-4.6%

21-USA-3.5%

25-Singapore-3.2%

27-Brunei-3.1%

32-South Korea-2.6%

34-India-2.4%

37-Vietnam-2.3%

40-France-2.2%

43-China-2.1%

44-UK-2.1%

54-Australia-1.8%

57-Cambodia-1.7%

62-Thailand-1.5%

64-Malaysia-1.5%

86-Germany-1.2%

91-Philippines-1.2%

105-Japan-1.0%

116-Indonesia-0.8%

Clearly, if we expect to stand-up to China, we should at least match her military spending.

But because we are a much smaller country, our best benchmark should probably be Singapore.

At 3.2% of Nominal GDP, our 2016 Defense Budget should be about $10.6 Billion ($330 Billion x 3.2%).

Give the AFP a budget equal to 3.2% of our GDP, and let us see whether we cannot still afford advanced weapon systems like Lockheed Martin's F-35...