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Bert Rutan tried to do that. Selling aircraft to the US military is a tough sell unless you're one of the big boys.
by greedo 6y ago
Bert Rutan tried to do that. Selling aircraft to the US military is a tough sell unless you're one of the big boys.
- sneak 6y agoThis is a kind way of saying that the defense industry and their sole customer are vertically integrated and serve as a way of transferring HUGE amounts of tax money into private hands without any accountability or real market forces at work of any kind. The whole thing is a criminal enterprise designed to rob public funds and enrich a small group. It's been widely known for decades and everyone who thinks this is a bad thing is powerless to stop it. It teaches one a lot about the true nature of the USA.
- greedo 6y agoWell, part of this integration is inevitable. Defense materiel is so complicated, leading to high expenses that the DoD is required to manage vendors. Much of the aerospace consolidation that has happened in the past 30 years has been "encouraged" by the Pentagon as they think a smaller vendor can't really compete. At the same time, they want to preserve the industrial capacity so that they have flexibility when the military equivalent of the 737MAX strikes. That's why ULA is still around despite SpaceX kicking its butt.