The fall of the Reformers
A group of like-minded individuals and under the protection of Thomas P. Christie, head of the Tac Air division. Notable for their loathing of tech, as shown through their disdain towards everything tech. One notable section was the 'fighter Mafia' whom was formed around John Boyd and Thomas P. Christie. While their attacks on the aircraft being fielded, had found some fertile ground due in part of how thinkers had thought that dogfighting would become largely irrelevant, they weren't prepared for the media war that would wage with the events of the Middle-east and Guangchou serving as a worrying backdrop.
After ab egregious incident with a member of the 'fighter mafia', all hell broke loose. While at the start, the reformers, being lead by William S. Lind managed to secure some ground using the distrust of the military and the fact there was indeed some truth in the criticisms. Being prepared for it, the opposition sought to brutally rip apart the sensationalist and spin doctoring MO that shown again and again whenever a 'Reformer' sought to strike a blow. People on both sides found their reputations and career sunk in the firestorm, with collateral becoming unavoidable from the sheer weight of both scrutiny and accusations being thrown around. By the time things finally calmed down after a full year of fire and brimstone, alongside tons of tests on both sides.
While The Reformers had eventually lost, with their methods being turned against them, thanks in part of the various factfinders trudging through the media war to uncover the truth. Partly because while sensationalist, there are kernels of mundane truth hidden inside their wonderous lies and exaggerations, ones that will hopefully be taken care with now that it is exposed.
A/N: I was inspired, so I decided to write this. The reformers died before they were able to branch out, like their scathing propaganda campaign against the Bradley IFV. But they likely still left an impression, though the US army could still come out ahead after recovering, assuming they decide to put effort to really try to fix the problems that did exist in the system. As far as why a year? Well, lots of testing, poking at existing projects, mud-slinging, and investigative reporting are likely to be going on. And well, even with it going hotter than IRL, it honestly might take even longer than just one year to be fully resolved.
Edit:
Some relevant articles I used to help a bit in making this.