You know it's almost six years since we had this conversation? Four more years and there'll be a breakthrough for sure.
Such cynicism, so unbecoming in one so young. I mean, they're confident they'll have a working prototype by the mid-2020s.
Ya know... I mean, I get it. They're Lockheed. They're pretty much apex defense contractors. And under Kelly Johnson the Skunk Works made some innovative planes, and under Ben Rich they made... planes but I'm not sure how their operational expertise extends to, you know, fusion. This is like when people got so used to listening to Edward Teller that when he said "our new superweapon is dropping shit from space" the Air Force makes concept art And the National Interest writes articles about "tugeston bombs" because either they heard someone say "tungsten" with a headcold and are so credulous they assumed it was something cooler or you need to be goddamned feverish to take that shit seriously.