Tuc,
Agreed with most of what you say, and since we are trying look at a strategic requirement that may or may not exist anything from 10 - 15 years in the future, I can understand why this could be the cause of a requirement disappearing or changing.
So is it true to say that the global threat picture was changing so quickly that our "looking glass" is/was no longer fit for purpose or did no one react when we saw it changing? (Thereby needing to "start again")
Your more senior person would not normally have instituted a "restart" without a very significant review of requirements, alternatively, could it be that snake oil was on the menu?
Imagegear