1/ Here is how the abomination that is the AT-ST came about. Spoiler alert, it comes down to compromises & mission creep.
— Jake Chapman 🇺🇸🚀 ✨🇺🇸 (@vc) December 8, 2022
"Initial Requirement: We need a small dropship deliverable armored sentry tower (ST) for forward operating bases with space for 4 sentries"
An early sketch: https://t.co/T4FRTI8hd0 pic.twitter.com/3oSp7xoCQS
The Pentagon Wars is a comedy film made in 1998 about the long and bizarre development of the US military's Bradley Fighting Vehicle. This long scene from the film summarizes the long design process of this combat vehicle ran hugely over-budget and failed to accomplish its central purpose:
The organizational culture of the Department of the Defense during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s as the Bradley moved from the drawing board to the battlefield is not unique. Jack Chapman explains in a long Twitter thread that the Galactic Empire, in its final years, demonstrated a similar paralysis of leadership that led to the invention of the AT-ST--a combat vehicle that was so inept that even Ewoks armed with Stone Age technology could defeat them.
-via Debby Witt