[laen]

There's really no driving force or threat for the military to innovate in these small counterinsurgency wars. The military has established a status quo and is very comfortable with its current operations. When you start utilizing F-22s to conduct ISIS strikes just to demo the efficacy(inefficiency) of the platform it shows "winning" the war perhaps isn't the top priority.

[poof131]

You hit a part of the military that really upsets me and I feel garners virtually no discussion. As a former F-18 pilot, I saw this first hand, as the military spent $billions on using jets to target insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan when Super Tacanos [1] would have been 10 times cheaper and more effective. Super Tacanos were requested by the Special Ops community but big Navy/AirForce/MarineCorps shut the program down. The military (and government in general) will spend every penny in the budget and then ask for more even if cheaper, more effective alternatives exist. The military-industrial complex needs curtailing and Americans need to ask why no government agency ever comes in under budget.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_314_Super_Tucano

[pm90]

To answer your last question, it is simply that there is no incentive for them to do so. If they don't use all their budget, it will be reduced the next year.