Before I retired, I worked at a large program office in the DC area. There would be weekly meeting where almost 300 people would show up. Were all these people necessary? Of course not. Many of them were support contractors making $100+/hour.
A lot of retired military go to work for SAIC, MITRE, IDA, and any number of Beltway bandits. In some cases, their experience is needed. In other cases, however, they’re just milking the System.
My office in OSD (DOT&E)has one GS-15 Action Officer for oversight of F-35 testing. He probably has three or four IDA (FFRDC) contractor supporters full or part-time. We have continuing “issues” with the F-35 program regarding deficiencies discovered in tests. The PEO/PMO attitude seems to be to outgun the enemy—us. What effect this overstaffing has on the continuous cost increases of the F-35 program I don’t know. But I do know that manufacturer and vendor manhours come at a fully burdened cost, while our relatively few hours are dollar-for-dollar in taxpayer money. That is, the taxpayer spends a dollar and gets a dollar’s worth of work.
TC