Does the DoD ever actually "Cancel" a program completely?

[DrewUSA]

What I am wondering, and what made me think of this, is because the first week in office, President Obama said he would be canceling the “unnecessary, over budget, new presidential helicopter contract.
Well the next day on Global Security.org, a company was given something like $100 million (that we know of) line itemed to continue to develop the next helicopter….
I only bring this up because the NASA and the US Air Force has said they have researching supersonic and hypersonic aircrafts over the past 40 years. Many test successful, and then the infamous, we are going to pull the funding on that project… This seems like a weapon that would serve best under a black ops program anyway (and something the CIA would love to have a few of for surveillance)

 

[My2Cents]

Well, the opposition knows that you are researching supersonic and hypersonic aircrafts, same as they are. Seems to me that an open, but highly troubled, program would be the perfect cover for a fully black pre-deployment program.

Didn’t they do something similar with the F-117 Nighthawk? There was a massive program, derided by the critics as a failure, to produce stealth aircraft that never seemed to be to work good enough. Meanwhile, out in the desert, the F-117 were running practice missions every new moon.

It is one of the old magician’s tricks -- Show them what they expect to see and they will ignore what you are really doing.