One reason, thankfully, that the Germans came out on the short end in WW-II was that, rather than studying-to-death the ways of devising a successful weapons system, they focused on building monuments to themselves. Consider the Bismarck, or that enormous cannon that required a railroad line and 2000 men to fire it. Despite Rommel's success with fast, highly mobile armor, they built such things as the above, which didn't move particularly well, weren't designed particularly well, and, ultimately, provided little benefit.

Their nuclear program was also weighed down by the same flaws, albeit in security. Now, the U.S. nuclear program was compromised to the Russians by the same scientists who designed it. The security apparently wasn't as important as time-to-market, and the 50 years of nuclear terror of the "cold war", with its trillions of $$$ wasted on unnecessary defense spending on both sides, was the result.

RE