The problem starts with Congress. The proposed 2026 defense budget is loaded with pork for unnecessary programs. It has more than $300 million that the Defense Department didn’t ask for to buy and upgrade Humvees. There’s $240 million for the Gray Eagle drone, the Model-T of unmanned aircraft that the Army labeled “obsolete.” Then there’s over $360 million for an Apache helicopter that the Army didn’t request. As the House and Senate work toward the country’s first trillion-dollar defense budget, over $52 billion is for things members of Congress added, unbidden, to the Pentagon’s wish list, according to the independent budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.