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What is missing in all of this, and Michelle Flournoy doesn't really get it either, is that innovation requires experiment and testing with something to find out what works and what doesn't. It's not let 1000 flowers bloom. It' pick a few, try to grow them, hybridize them and pick from the most robust, useful, productive, etc. Rinse and repeat. Making things work is hard. We used to excel at that.

Neither Ford nor the Wright Brothers tried everything. They settled on a plausible option using available or foreseeably developable and pursued improvements until it worked.

Skunkworks did not pursue all conceptual aerospace options. It pursued the development of advanced aircraft building on projections from known capabilities.