By DANA LIEBELSON
In Star Wars, the "Death Star" is a super-weapon of unspeakable terror, capable of obliterating planets in a single shot. Conveniently, it's also the perfect metaphor for any Department of Defense (DoD) project that sucks time and money into a black hole, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Ward.
Ward advocates the “FIST” approach to defense acquisitions: projects should be fast, inexpensive, simple, and tiny. In this vein, he recently wrote an article for Defense AT&L comparing certain unnamed DoD projects to the infamous Death Star, which he defines as anything that is “brain-meltingly complex, ravenously consumes resources, and aims to deliver an “Undefeatable Ultimate Weapon.”
Ward also points out that the Death Star rarely actually contributes to the fight, due to operational and programmatic problems. In the Star Wars series, the weapon is only used once successfully. The second Death Star attempt is bogged down by scheduling issues and eventually blown up by rebel forces.
“The investment on the scale [of the Death Star] is unsustainable and completely lost when a womp-rat-hunting farm boy takes a lucky shot,” Ward writes.
Ward may not name names in his Death Star analogy, but it’s not hard to figure out which programs he might be referring to.
The Future Imagery Architecture program, a next-generation satellite reconnaissance program, cost several billion dollars more than planned by the time it was killed in 2005. The New York Times called it “perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects.”
Then there’s the Future Combat Systems program, the modernization program that cost taxpayers $18 billion before it was put to rest. And plenty of other billion-dollar programs with less ‘futuristic’ names have been cancelled, like the Comanche Helicopter and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.
According to POGO’s Director of Investigations, Nick Schwellenbach, “in general, it’s not a good sign when a weapons program has the word ‘future’ in the title.”
These kinds of programs, Ward writes, are about as “practical as a metal bikini. Sure, they look cool, but they aren’t very sensible.” Ward brings up R2-D2 as a contrast to the Death Star—R2-D2 may not be flashy, but he’s a war-winning weapon that is “simple, inexpensive and small.”
In the past, Ward has pointed to the bazooka, the F-16, and the Predator drone as examples of R2-D2-style programs.
As policymakers continue to mull over defense spending cuts, they might be wise to heed the advice C3PO gave to Luke Skywalker: “that R2-D2 is in prime condition, and a real bargain.”
Dana Liebelson is POGO's Beth Daley Impact Fellow.
Image: Matt Brett
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