Eli5: Why is it that whenever we hear about “defense spending” it’s always on offensive things like weapons? Is there not a way to make actual defense the priority instead of offense?

Question

I could be missing the point about military spending, and the five-year-old in my head asking the question does just want forcefields over every country in the end.

In: Technology

Answer 1

Because such a defensive system do not exist in real life. I know that you didn’t meant real forcefields, but there isn’t much of anything else that could do similar job.

There is still some item in the military that serve a defensive purpose like anti-air defense that are there to protect the country against air attack. Weirdly enough, nuclear weapons brough more peace that any defensive system in history. The fear of mutal destruction had a powerful effect of calming everybody down.