Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaijo
Not always. Sometimes someone does stumble upon an idea, and the corporation likes it so they fund development, thinking they can sell it.
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Problem is, your example (sentence 1) implied that some engineers actually finished R&D and made a robot
before they even consider who or how they are going to market them (last sentence). The
sequence is wrong.
R&D doesn't wok that way. Higher-ups would never finance a project unless there's a prospect in it, so there's no way the robot would have gone past "doodles someone made at lunch" phase, let alone prototype and testing.
And then there's the fact that StrikerS showed that Gadget Drones are
illegal and the Raptors are essentially a step-up. Putting that much trust in a project so risky is suicide, and like you said the corporations love
profit, something a risk-taking project does not guarantee.
A more plausible idea would be that someone:
1. Made the revolutionary concept design
2. Find a potential buyer, probably disillusioned high-ranking officers like Graham or Gaiz who're less concerned with legality and controversy as long as the end justifies them
3. Ask the corporation to give a green light, knowing that at least there's someone in the military who will buy them, securing an early market
4. Research and Development
But even then the theory feels rather weak when you realized that many black markets sells
surplus military supplies, bought when a great threat like the Cold War materialized only to become a burden when it ended, instead of rare ultra high-tech weapons.
Making completely new weapons is waaaaaaaaaay more expensive than modifying existing ones, with most of its money burned out on R&D. That's why with the threat of a great World War disappearing many high-tech arms research got the ax and the ones already existing got their purchase amount drastically reduced (see F-22 Raptor) while old but battle-proven beasts gets rejuvenation and upgrade programs.
It's mildly more sensible to sell them to war-torn Orussia because there's more market there than the relatively peaceful Midchilda, and selling them strictly to special forces isn't too profitable. Mildly.
Just because it's a common plot point doesn't make it
*ahem* "realistic", a term I remember you like.