Preparing for their second war since the Sino-Indian War of 1962 is seeing both India and China engaged in an all-out arms race set to drive up global weapons spending over the next 10 years.
India spent over $50 billion on its military in 2016, making it the fifth top weapons spender and pushing Russia out of the top five list. India is hastily modernizing the Indian Armed Forces, and its massive defense spending on new equipment should make it the world third top defense spender in 2018, displacing the United Kingdom.
On the other hand, China's publicly acknowledged defense spending for 2016 comes to $192 billion, the world's second largest behind the United States. China's defense budget is expected to almost double within from $123 billion in 2010 to $233 billion by 2020.
Some western defense analysts, however, claim China has a habit of understating its total defense budget, and the true figure is much higher.
Even then, U.S. defense spending will still be three times that of China's. The U.S. spends $2.77 for every dollar China spends on defense.
Global military spending rose to $1.57 trillion in 2016. Spending by India and China will drive-up global arms spending over the next 10 years.
The U.S. continues to be the biggest defense spender by far, and has set aside over $622 billion for this purpose in 2016. That represents some 40% of total global defense spending in 2016.
The U.S. has spent over $9.35 trillion for defense since Sept. 11, 2001 (9/11). Its Overseas Contingency Operations accounted for $1.62 trillion or 17 percent of the total U.S. Department of Defense.
Analysts expect U.S. defense spending to rise under Donald Trump, and noted that rising defense spending could be indirectly responsible for increased tension in Asia, which will further boost defense spending.