Over thirty years in the defense industry I read many contracts from front to back. They are stuffed with requirements dictated by Congress that do nothing for the hardware except make it more expensive. Requirements to set aside significant parts for generally unqualified small businesses, requirements not to use cadmium or chromium or even forbidding using products from companies that use those materials in products you aren’t buying(FCS), requirements for diversity training...the list goes on and on. I made estimates, which was my job, that up to half the cost of any contract I dealt with was for items that did not go into the hardware or software. On FCS, I estimated that for every dollar the government spent only about twenty cents went into actual end product. In general, the larger and more important the program the worse the waste.
My dad was a purchasing officer at JPA in Tokyo.
Back then, the focus was on rebuilding Japanese industry and protecting SK.
I think the Korean conflict helped Japan recover from the war more than anything else we did.
That’s depressing.
Don’t forget all mafias that hat need to be pad off to get a system a material release. Some of them only last 3 years. I have seen systems start the process only to have some of the statements expire before the final ones are finished. IA, Safety, ATO, suitability, sustainability, cyber, manufacturability, Safety of flight, gps vulnerabilit, enviromental impact, maintanability ..... no exemptions a system must meet all those and more. Each has a multiple hundred page requirement list. The all point to the others so it’s a web of pay my organization. Each will find something you must fix which causes you to go back to each with a change notification. 40% is wasted on this shit.
FCS was one of the most disgraceful boondoggles in government history. Wish more people were aware of this fiasco.