That's not very much money considering how staggeringly dangerous that job is. And soldiers are expected to pay for far more stuff than any normal military. They even wind up buying their own vehicles and fuel in many circumstances.
Now, the good thing about this system is capitalism: soldiers have strong incentives to use the funding wisely, and supply chains to provide all this stuff develop naturally. It also means that a significant % total military funding comes from volunteer efforts: I personally have collected something like $60k of funding. That lets the Ukrainian government focus more on funding things that are difficult for volunteers to provide, such as the Ukrainian long range drone, cruise missile, and ballistic missile programs.
Speaking of, some of the results of those programs:
...your point?
That's not very much money considering how staggeringly dangerous that job is. And soldiers are expected to pay for far more stuff than any normal military. They even wind up buying their own vehicles and fuel in many circumstances.
Now, the good thing about this system is capitalism: soldiers have strong incentives to use the funding wisely, and supply chains to provide all this stuff develop naturally. It also means that a significant % total military funding comes from volunteer efforts: I personally have collected something like $60k of funding. That lets the Ukrainian government focus more on funding things that are difficult for volunteers to provide, such as the Ukrainian long range drone, cruise missile, and ballistic missile programs.
Speaking of, some of the results of those programs: