Defense Department urged to stop ignoring ‘full' cost of personnel

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/01/26/2450019/defense-department-urged-to-stop.html

Defense Department urged to stop ignoring ‘full' cost of personnel
TOM PHILPOTT; Contributing Writer
Published: Jan. 26, 2013 at 12:05 a.m. PST

This time last year, the Air Force unveiled a plan to cut Air National Guard strength by 5,100 members along with more than 200 Guard aircraft, touting this as a reasonable efficiency, in part because Guard squadrons cost more to operate than active duty squadrons.

~snip~

The board’s report, online at ra.defense. gov/rfpb/reports/ argues that, unlike defense contractors bidding to build ships or new combat vehicles, Defense policy makers don’t have to account for “fully-burdened and life-cycle costs” of personnel, even though military personnel costs have reached $250 billion a year or about half the entire defense budget.

The report claims the “fully-burdened per capita” cost to the government of an active duty member is $108,307 in pay and benefits, a figure 20 percent higher usually calculated because it includes their health care, dependent education, housing and commissaries. The equivalent per capita cost of reserve component members is $34,272, with 30 percent of that linked health care improvements under Tricare Reserve Select.

Total Defense Department per capita costs triple, to $330,342 for active duty and to $100,380 for reserve component members, when noncompensation items such as training, military construction and base support costs are calculated. They climb by another 15 to 20 percent when military personnel costs covered by other federal departments, including Veterans Affairs, Treasury, Labor and Education, are calculated. These non-DoD costs for personnel include the GI Bill, VA disability benefits, job training for vets, and a portion of retirement and Medicare obligations paid by Treasury.

[JDPriestly]

1. Wow!

"Total Defense Department per capita costs triple, to $330,342 for active duty and to $100,380 for reserve component members."

I knew that we were paying too much for our defense, but when you multiply those numbers times, say, just 100, you really begin to understand where tax money goes.

Approximately how many are serving now?

As of 30 September 2010, 1,430,895 people were on active duty[23] in the military, with an additional 848,000 people in the seven reserve components.[3] It is an all-volunteer military, but conscription through the Selective Service System can be enacted at the President's request and Congress' approval. All males aged 18 through 25 who are living in the U.S. are required to register with the Selective Service for a potential future draft.

The U.S. military is the world's second largest, after China's People's Liberation Army, and has troops deployed around the globe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces

And governors complain about the costs of teachers' pensions?