This is a recurring theme for the military when the leadership is clever. Develop a weapons system with extreme capabilities and bring it to the point of production - making our would-be opponents react to it - and then cancel or re-purpose it and then go with a different system with capabilities that our opponents are not prepared for.
Then repeat as necessary until your opponents are bankrupt.
That's what happened to the USSR - we got inside of their decision cycle and ran them ragged.
