Dragons can read spreadsheets, you know. They can calculate the best return-on-investment just as well as anybody else, modified of course for one’s own particular species-specific tendencies, and general mindset. And their ears perk up and their snouts start trailing smoke when they hear the magic phrase ‘government-sponsored resource acquisition.’
After that it’s just engineering.
I like the concept. Wasn’t the main bad guy in metroid a space pirate dragon?