MilitarySpend
Defense Economics Research

About MilitarySpend

About MilitarySpend

An independent publication on the economics of military power. We turn public budgets, official disclosures, and institutional estimates into analysis a non-specialist reader can follow.

Edited by Roman · Apr 21, 2026

Mission

MilitarySpend exists to document military spending, war costs, and defense economics with the same rigor applied to any other public-interest beat. The publication combines live trackers, research briefings, and longer reports — all built on cited public records — so readers can move from a headline number to the evidence behind it without hitting a paywall or an institutional subscription.

Editorial Team

Roman Kukhalashvili

Founder

Roman Kukhalashvili is an independent researcher focused on defense spending, war costs, and the economics of military power. He founded MilitarySpend to turn primary-source budget documents, congressional disclosures, and institutional estimates (CBO, CRS, CSIS, SIPRI, Brown Costs of War) into live trackers and briefings a non-specialist reader can follow. He leads sourcing, methodology, and editorial review for every figure published on the site.

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@kuxala09

Editorial Standards

  • Independence

    MilitarySpend takes no money from defense contractors, lobbying groups, or state actors. The publication is reader-supported and editorially independent.

  • Sourcing policy

    Every tracker figure and report claim ties back to a named public source — SIPRI, IISS, CBO, DoD budget documents, congressional testimony, or official ministry releases.

  • Corrections policy

    Errors are fixed visibly and logged on the corrections page. We update the figure, note the change, and preserve the prior number so the revision is auditable.

  • Methodology transparency

    Estimation methods, assumptions, and data cut-off dates are documented on the methodology page and linked from the relevant tracker or report.

  • Funding disclosure

    The site is reader-supported and carries no advertiser sponsorship or paid placement. Any future funding sources will be disclosed on this page before they take effect.

How We Work

MilitarySpend runs as a small, transparent pipeline. The intent is that any reader can audit how a number on the site came to be published.

  1. Step 1

    Daily automated maintenance

    Scheduled jobs refresh tracker inputs from public feeds and budget documents. Automated commits are logged in the repository history for auditability.

  2. Step 2

    Manual review of major figures

    Headline numbers — total spend, war cost estimates, procurement totals — are reviewed by hand against primary documents before publication.

  3. Step 3

    Cited sources on every tracker

    Each live tracker links out to the source documents behind its inputs, with cut-off dates and estimation notes where applicable.

  4. Step 4

    Open methodology

    The reasoning behind each model is written up in plain language on the methodology page. Readers can reproduce or challenge the approach.

Editorial principles

Document first

Public records, official statements, budget texts, and named institutional estimates form the base layer of the publication. If a figure is inferred or modeled, it is described that way.

Explain the caveat with the number

We do not separate arithmetic from uncertainty. Approximate figures, directional estimates, and projections are labeled plainly so readers know what the work can and cannot prove.

Keep the chain of evidence visible

Readers should be able to move from a headline number to the source trail that supports it, then on to the methodology that shaped it and the corrections that refined it.

Write for public use

The publication is structured so a journalist, researcher, student, or general reader can understand the argument without insider language or an institutional subscription gate in the way.

What the publication covers

Military budgets and procurement priorities
Conflict cost estimates and operational tempo
Defense industry revenue, contracts, and supply chains
Alliance burden-sharing and regional comparisons
Budget tradeoffs, sustainment, and industrial capacity
Live trackers, briefings, reports, and source notes

How the site is organized

MilitarySpend is built in layers. The home page shows live trackers, briefings explain current developments, reports carry longer analysis, and the trust pages document the source trail behind the work.

Why it exists

Military spending is often reduced to a headline total or a partisan talking point. The publication exists to restore context: what the number covers, what it misses, who benefits, what it costs, and how the evidence changes over time.