Low Hanging Fruit

I was sitting in an XP (Plans and Programs) division meeting the other day, and I heard the statement, “High Power Microwave low hanging fruit is not on air platforms (and therefore we should pursue something else in the short term).” It’s not the first time I’ve heard this phrase. It is also used as a justification for prioritizing acquisition efforts.

What’s this “low hanging fruit” syndrome?! When proposing for funding support, we choose to go only for what we know we can get? The idea refers to an animal, walking on all-fours, stretching upward to eat from the trees. Much of the tree is inaccessible simply because the animal cannot reach it.

But we don’t walk on all-fours. Why don’t we lay a goal out before us and pursue it with resources? Okay, it won’t all be done in the first year, but we’ll get somewhere worth going rather than fill the file drawer with another decade of “who cares we did that?”