here be a good example of the status of a collapsing empire. like in most empire failures this one also features corruption, illusion and waste; 

 

The Department of Defense (DOD) wastes billions of dollars developing weapons that are often delivered late — if they are delivered at all — a congressional subcommittee heard Tuesday.

“By the time these weapons are in the hands of our warfighters, many will be at least partially obsolete,” said subcommittee chairman Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.). “Most will cost much more than planned and will deliver less warfighting capabilities than anticipated.”

Burchett heads the House Oversight Committee’s Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, which held a roundtable on the subject of Pentagon profligacy.

GAO vs. DOD

Among the agencies represented at the hearing was the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which, coincident with its testimony, released a brief-but-brutal report on the DOD’s weapon-systems acquisition process.

Drawing on previous GAO reports that included recommendations for improvement that, Tuesday’s report noted, “remain unimplemented by DOD,” the office found that Pentagon weapons development is sluggish, expensive, and uncertain. Unlike businesses, which have found ways to “fail fast” with minimal waste of time and money, then pivot to more-promising avenues of product development, the DOD “is still trying to develop 21st-century innovations with 20th-century oversight frameworks.” This approach causes DOD development to “‘fail slow’ in the sense of spending significant time and resources on an effort that ultimately does not make it into users’ hands.”

According to the GAO:..........more.........