Balance the budget by eliminating unneeded weapons systems

[Kolesar]

I have this "notion" that there are a lot of very expensive weapons that don't need to be purchased. For example, the Air Force is buying supersonic ground attack jets: the jets will be supersonic and save the lives of the pilots who need to flee from surface to air missiles. The US is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to buy these jets, but the real sadness is that they will eventually be obsoleted by much cheaper pilotless aircraft.

Another example would have been the B-1B bomber of the 1980s, a bomber that was soon obsoleted by stealth technology. The Air Force actually retired a third of those aircraft in less than 20 years.

Is there a group somewhere that tracks these folly purchases? I would like to have some research material that I can use as a basis for writing letters to Congress. I really think that we are entering a new era and that we can get beyond the "anything the Pentagon wants" mindset in Congress. I am not sure that it is even what the Pentagon wants. I think that a lot of the military leaders realize that what is needed is a better understanding of the world and different policies. The excess spending is more to the benefit of the weapons manufacturers in the "aerospace industry".