Contracts are usually on a "cost, plus" basis, meaning that, so long as there are no gross acts of incompetence or malfeasance, the contractor can keep plugging away...
The two examples off the top of my head are the Sgt. York regimental level AA weapon, once described as being "incapable of striking the oblong aspect of a agricultural storage building" and was tested on slow flying target-drones laden with explosive charges (the charges were there to blow up "on cue," so as to give the audience the opportunity see what things would look like if the darned thing actually worked, and the A-10, a much more successful, albeit still larded (vehicles that fly so slow and low to the ground as to be navigable using gas-station maps (a slight exaggeration, since you can't re-fold the things whilst driving a car, let alone flying in a plane...) doesn't need inertial navigation and some of the bells and whistles built into it -- it is a flying cannon, no more, no less.
As for the rest -- flying, stealth Terminators... a lovely notion... just waiting to phone in to Skynet.
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timeasmymeasure
Unfortunately...
Date: 2008-06-11 02:03 am (UTC)Contracts are usually on a "cost, plus" basis, meaning that, so long as there are no gross acts of incompetence or malfeasance, the contractor can keep plugging away...
The two examples off the top of my head are the Sgt. York regimental level AA weapon, once described as being "incapable of striking the oblong aspect of a agricultural storage building" and was tested on slow flying target-drones laden with explosive charges (the charges were there to blow up "on cue," so as to give the audience the opportunity see what things would look like if the darned thing actually worked, and the A-10, a much more successful, albeit still larded (vehicles that fly so slow and low to the ground as to be navigable using gas-station maps (a slight exaggeration, since you can't re-fold the things whilst driving a car, let alone flying in a plane...) doesn't need inertial navigation and some of the bells and whistles built into it -- it is a flying cannon, no more, no less.
As for the rest -- flying, stealth Terminators... a lovely notion... just waiting to phone in to Skynet.