The Defense Innovation Unit was founded in 2015 and is full of SV interest groups:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Innovation_Unit

They could obviously have foreseen the current failures in 2015. It is irrelevant, since the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Generals who routinely give theatrical performances for the cameras want the big toys for their districts.

The goal in Iran is also not to win but to keep the Gulf monarchies, the EU, Japan and China down by means of a low intensity forever war.