It's always struck me....Why do we never have simple "Technology Maturation" projects?

"Because that's DARPA's job", I'm going to hear, I suppose.

I always thought DARPA's job was the really far out research - then, once you have something that may actually have applications, it transitions to the services.

Yet there's no tolerance anywhere to say that "No, the <F-22/V-22/Pick-your-project> is probably not ready for primetime...And that's okay, because even if this project is a failure or has issues, we have knowledge that we can immediately pile into the "Son of" project and thereby get to a version that reduces the risks".

Yes, projects will fail. My dad worked for 33 years for US Army CECOM, so I know what the Acquisition picture is like - I grew up with it. I know that failures are seen as inevitably bad, inevitably the result of someone's malice or incompetence.

Which makes no sense to me. Projects will fail. That's life, and so long as the Project Manager has the courage to look at his project and recognize when that's the case (and actually call for the plug to be pulled) while a project is in SDD (rather than sending it inexorably to EMD and then fielding), why should they be given a black mark for it?

Is there no place for us to say "Okay, V-22 may not be combat-ready; But that's fine, it's meant to test the technologies in a semi-operational form. Now we move on to the next iteration, incorporating everything from V-22." (for example)? None at all?

(GAO beats on DOD, rightly, for moving forward with projects before the technologies involved are mature, and it's one of the big reasons they've found for why DOD acquisitions projects go haywire so often.)