The truly shocking thing about SBIR/STTR programs is realizing what they are and why they exist. Basically, a couple of decades ago the remaining big defense co

The truly shocking thing about SBIR/STTR programs is realizing what they are and why they exist. Basically, a couple of decades ago the remaining big defense contractors merged to the point where they had enough market power to slash their R&D spending to the bone — in order to more efficiently focus on moving taxpayer dollars into shareholder pockets. To offset this, Congress created a set of programs that basically shifted the cost of low-level R&D onto the taxpayer. It seems fully expected that the goal of these programs is to fund smaller businesses to do this research, but only until the point that those businesses can be acquired by the big defense contractors. There are even special partner days where STTR/SBIR recipients get matched up with the Beltway bandits, and there are official government agents there to hell make these partnerships and acquisitions happen. In many cases this is the only way a small firm can get access to the real money, so the big firms effectively get their R&D at taxpayer cost without taking any real risk at all.