Exactly.
What some call "waste" is simply the actual cost of bringing a massive, high tech (and a lot of new tech) program to completion.
Some people who have never been involved in such a project (and I have) do not really understand what t takes to push the envelope like that and then try and hit the schedukle and budget.
Hart to do when you are dealing with technoligies that no one has ever put into production before.
With the Ford and the Zumwalt, there as been schedule slippage and overruns...but I expect that when you are doing the cutting edge. it's how you stay ahead of your competition...and it is not an easy thing to afford.
100% agreed! I always use an analogy of treasure hunters / explorers to describe technological advancement. It's impossible to hit the mark 100% of the time when you venture into the unknown. In fact, anyone who has done any treasure hunting or has watched movies about treasure hunting, you'll know that you WILL hit a dead end 99.9999% of the time.
However, those dead ends should never be considered as "waste". You now know what not to do. It may sound like a cliche, but knowing what not to do is even more important than knowing what to do when you deal with envelope-pushing on a daily basis. I would say overwhelming majority of the concept "experience" is composed of "what-not-to-do" and "failures".
I dare say that those who never fails would be as immature and naive as those who has never experienced, not to mention it's impossible to find people who never fail.
That's also why only wealthy nations stay at the forefront of technological advancement. They can afford to "waste" 99.9999% of their attempts. And that 0.0001% makes them stay ahead of everyone else.
... J-15 n. 122 !
