A few months ago we spilled the beans about the damage PowerPoint has caused in the Afghanistan operations abroad, but now the Pentagon has let loose the true dogs of war: The Government Acquisitions Process.

But that slide was child’s play compared to the three-foot wall chart the military uses to explain its gajillion-step process for developing, buying, and maintaining gear. The “Integrated Acquisitions Technology and Logistics Life Cycle Management” diagram is kind of a precis to the whole interminable progression, from “decompose concept functional definition into component concepts & assessment objective” to “execute support program that meets materiel readiness and operational support performance requirements and sustains system in most cost-effective manner.” Stare long enough, and you’ll start to see why it takes a decade for the Defense Department to buy a tanker plane, or why marines are still reading web pages with Internet Explorer 6.

Even printed 3 feet wide that would be tough to read. Having dealt with this process myself, however, I can attest to it shedding absolutely no light on the mysteries within.

I think this may be a 2-kitten slide.

via Revealed! Pentagon’s Craziest PowerPoint Slide EVER | Danger Room | Wired.com.