"In the US most research is targeted as selling things to the military." This strikes me as a very narrow perspective. Defense and Non-Defense R&D spending are

"In the US most research is targeted as selling things to the military." This strikes me as a very narrow perspective. Defense and Non-Defense R&D spending are about the same (https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/DefNon.png https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/DefNon.png) and the second largest funder of R&D is the NIH.