No we can't. We do R&D, most of the small nations do not. We pay our troops well, they mostly draft theirs and pay them very little.
We do have a large, effective military force. The disadvantage the countries who spend more as a percentage of GDP than us is that they have really weak forces. One of our guys can whip ten of theirs. Furthermore, we are still at twice the global average, which is mostly the product of us defending large portions thereof. If we spent at the rate of the largest on the list, we would spend $1.5 Trillion on defense. For one thing, there is no way we can pay for that without keeping taxes at or near the high rates they are today even if we shrunk and ultimately eliminated entitlements and other unconstitutional programs. Also, 2.5% of the global economy would be taken up by our military. That’s just absurd, and it’s unnecessary.