How Many Military Bases Does The U.S. Have Around The World?
Story by Brad Hill • 19h
One of the few metrics that America ranks first in is military spending. According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Department of Defense received $841 billion, which means America's military has plenty of money for research & development of new equipment, funding for personnel, and military bases around the world. According to the CATO Institute, as of 2021, the United States military has roughly 750 bases spread out across 80 countries. Al Jazeera points out, "The actual number may be even higher as not all data is published by the Pentagon."
If 750+ sounds like a lot of bases to you, that's because it is. To put it into perspective, America has over three times as many military installations as the next highest country, the United Kingdom, which has 145 bases. Not that it's a competition, but it is staggering to see the difference. That's not including all the bases that are stateside or all of the aircraft carriers at sea that essentially serve as a floating base, either. The top three countries that have US bases are Japan with 120, Germany with 119, and South Korea with 73 bases. If you see a connection between the countries that have the most bases and places that have had significant conflicts, you're onto something.
Why Does America Need So Many Military Bases?
When you're deployed with the military, you're deployed to one of two types of installations. It's either a base, which is typically a larger installation of more than 10 acres, or a lily pad, a smaller, sometimes temporary installation. Roughly 40% of American bases are lily pads. Of course, if you're in the Navy, you can also be deployed on an aircraft carrier, which can be positioned near regions without a US base of any kind.
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