At $716 billion, the US military budget is larger than the defense spending of the next ten nations, combined, yet is mostly wasted, said William Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. “Almost half of the money to the Pentagon goes straight out the door to major corporations…much of it to build things we don’t need, like a new generation of nuclear weapons, or a new fighter plane that many experts say will never be ready for combat,” said Hartung.