As a project manager on military projects I read the entire contract. I think the worst was Future Combat Systems. Apparently, someone had a jihad against cadmium plating on connectors. Not only could we not use any cadmium product, if a company even sold a cadmium plated product that we were not buying, we could not buy from them. This meant we were having connectors specially made by people who did not ordinarily make connectors. There’s a lot of “art” in connectors.
This was only one of the spectacularly ridiculous green clauses in the contract. Every clause had a direct impact on cost, schedule and reliability. Our products were corroding during shipment, something my company had not experienced in anyone’s living memory. We had to bring almost every item back multiple times for “repairs” related to corrosion.
“There’s a lot of “art” in connectors.”
That I do understand. Most would be amazed at the amount of engineering involved, much painstakingly learned via experience.