The Death Star Boondoggle

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With the Star Wars Blu-ray box set due for release on Friday, there has been a flood of new articles about George Lucas' movie cycle. The best thing we've read is USAF Lt. Col. Dan Ward's Don't Come to the Dark Side: Acquisitions Lessons from a Galaxy Far, Far Away, a detailed analysis of how the Star Wars Death Stars were inevitably doomed by the Empire's quest for a foolproof defense system and applies that lesson to contemporary technological development:  "any enormous project that is brain-meltingly complex, ravenously consumes resources, and aims to deliver an Undefeatable Ultimate Weapon is well on its way to becoming a Death Star."

Wulf also decimates Darth Vader's management style and proclaims relatively simple droids like R2-D2 as the real heroes of both the movies and future weapons development. As Luke Skywalker could certainly tell you, an underfunded and technology-deprived enemy might just get off a lucky shot and take down your overly complex weapons system.

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