US President Donald Trump has been defending his record on military spending and his pledge to cut back US involvement in foreign wars.
In 2017 he said he would rebuild the country's "depleted military". He has also called for a reduction in US troops serving abroad.
Military spending has steadily increased since President Trump took office in January 2017.
However, this spending is still significantly
lower than during the first term of the Obama administration, using figures adjusted for inflation.
Looking at military spending over the past three decades, comparing it with the size of the US economy, current spending is at
nowhere near record levels.
President Trump has long called for
troops to come home and has criticised US military interventions for being costly and ineffective.
This year the president
reduced the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from 13,000 (by
4,400) and plans to cut the number further before the 3 November election.
But he has only moved the needle modestly in terms of global operations and deployments, as the
US Army remains everywhere that it was on January 20, 2017 when he took office.
The reduction of troops was much
greater under President Obama, as both large-scale deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan ended during his years in charge.