Yep, the funding requirements typically meant a process somewhat like - if you've got result A done or nearly done; then you apply for funding to do "A", but in fact do B for all that time. Then you apply for funding "to do B" while working on C for that funding... repeat ad nauseam for decades. Amazingly, it results in a process where each individual step is technically fraudulent but the total result is the intended one.

But this is not how most businesses operate, academic funding is a very different mindset. Well, perhaps defense contractor companies need to plan about their funding in similar terms.