As someone who works for a large defense contractor, in my experience this lack of long-term thinking is endemic to the industry leadership as a whole, down to

As someone who works for a large defense contractor, in my experience this lack of long-term thinking is endemic to the industry leadership as a whole, down to software developers often having to lobby and push for basic equipment, like workstations with the software required to run their code (not making this up). It's a very efficient business in terms of extracting revenue from the customer, the actual mission is almost always secondary or tertiary, much to the chagrin of the Engineers. And it's very complacent. In theory there's competition, but in reality all the big contractors are roughly the same company with a different color scheme down to the salary grades. I've had co-workers whose customer shifted the contract from one big contractor to the other and the only thing that changed was his badge and health insurance provider. It's actually a possible golden opportunity for any aspiring entrepreneurs willing to endure the politics and bullshit of working with the government. Regarding software, providing a better and cheaper product than the incumbents would not be difficult. The barriers would be human, but not necessarily insurmountable.