Number: 95-726
Title: Defense Budget: Alternative Measures of Costs of Military Commitments Abroad
Authors: Stephen Daggett, Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division 
Abstract: Widely divergent estimates of the costs of U.S. military commitments abroad are frequently cited in congressional debates over defense burdensharing. One source of such divergence is the very different definitions of overseas costs being used. Commonly cited measures of overseas costs include (1) incremental costs of deploying forces abroad rather than in the continental United States; (2) direct pay and operating costs of U.S. forces deployed overseas; (3) total costs, including shares of indirect support, overhead, and weapons acquisition, of forces deployed abroad; and (4) total costs of U.S. forces assigned to fulfill regional commitments.
Pages: 6
Date: Updated June 16, 1995