The Department of Defense spent $79.1 billion on contracts and grants in September 2024, making it the military’s most expensive month for such purchases since 2008.
Not since George W. Bush was president has the military funneled so much cash out the door so quickly.
The dollar total includes $33.1 billion spent in the last five working days of September, which was 7% of the Pentagon’s contract and grant spending for all of fiscal year 2024. Only 11 other countries typically spend that much on their entire military in a full year.
On Friday, Sept. 27 alone, the DoD spent $11.7 billion on contracts and grants.
Federal agencies typically go on spending sprees at the end of the fiscal year, likely due to “use-it-or-lose-it” funding rules. They’re worried that spending less than their budget allows will cause Congress to give them less money the following year.
The largest expenses were in line with expectations, including $3 billion spent on ammunition and $7.9 billion spent on aircraft.
Others were a bit more surprising.
The military spent $103.7 million on meat, fish and poultry in September, partially because they ordered raw lobster tail 147 times for $6.1 million. They also dropped $16.6 million on ribeye steak, $6.4 million on salmon and $407,000 on Alaskan king crab.
Another $81.1 million went towards fruits and veggies. Blueberries were the most popular, with three orders each exceeding $100,000. There was no grape juice; maybe there’s still some left from the DoD’s $586,000 purchase in September 2023.
Not all the groceries were as healthy. The DoD ordered ice cream 79 times for $113,230 and spent $117,787 on fresh doughnuts.
The military also spent $1.2 million on musical instruments of over a dozen varieties, including $12,480 for “piano tuning.”
Other spending highlights from September 2024 include:
-
At least $5.1 million on Apple products, including 130 iPhone 16 Pro Max devices
-
$16.3 million on cartons, crates and tool boxes
-
$211.7 million on new furniture and its installation
-
$24.4 million on books, pamphlets and newspapers
-
$36,000 on footrests
There were 19,043 different companies that received Pentagon contracts last September, but 31% of the money went to just 10 vendors. Lockheed Martin received $9.4 billion, almost twice as much as any other entity.
The vast majority of spending went to American businesses, but the DoD still sent nearly $2 billion to foreign companies last September.
Germany led the way with $481.5 million. The Pentagon is helping the chemicals company AlzChem Group build a plant in America to produce nitroguanidine, a substance found in gunpowder and other explosives, which accounted for $150 million.
The fourth-largest foreign purchase was $55.1 million worth of explosives from Canada, which the Pentagon sent to Ukraine. The DoD did the same thing the previous September – at a cost of $181.8 million
Saudi Arabian companies got $4.6 million and Qatar received $2.6 million.
Thankfully there were no foreign parking tickets this year, after the Navy paid a $7,136 ticket from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in September 2023.
September has been the DoD’s most expensive month almost every year since at least 2008. The only exception was 2020, when the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March increased expenses.
The DoD spent $455.2 billion on contracts in grants in fiscal year 2024 overall, which was 52% of its total budget.
Earlier this year, news broke that the Pentagon had failed its seventh consecutive audit, while the National Defense Authorization Act Requires them to achieve a clean audit by 2028.
According to a report by DoD Inspector General Robert Storch, “many of its identified weaknesses have not improved since 2005…achieving a clean audit does not rest solely in the hands of financial management professionals, but encompasses the entirety of processes and systems that track the accountability and use of DoD assets.”