New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte are among six senators who signed a bipartisan letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta calling on the Department of Defense (DOD) to eliminate Pentagon waste by halting funding for Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS).

The senators called it an example of a weapons program “the warfighter will never use.”

According to a Shaheen spokesman, the Pentagon “has said it does not intend to procure which has been plagued by consistent scheduling delays and cost overruns, as well as an overall failure to deliver results.

“The senators’ letter comes amid looming sequestration cuts and reflects a bipartisan effort to identify and eliminate waste at the Pentagon during this time of budgetary constraints,” the spokesman said.

The program, “which the military has made clear it does not intend to use, is being primarily developed overseas in Italy and Germany while costing the U.S. government millions of dollars. The DOD requested an additional $401 million for MEADS in President Barack Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2013.

The spokesman said the Senate and House committees on Armed Services and the House Defense Appropriations Committee “all excluded the requested funding for MEADS in their Fiscal Year 2013 DOD appropriations and authorization bills. With the government operating under a temporary continuing resolution, the senators believe the DOD should not spend any money on the program until the relevant budget bills are complete.”

— John DiStaso