Your shock assumes there is leadership at the top that sees the big picture with respect to enabling technology. While not in the US, I have seen the inner work

Your shock assumes there is leadership at the top that sees the big picture with respect to enabling technology. While not in the US, I have seen the inner workings of other nations armed forces, and there is an overwhelming urge to farm everything out to contractors - so there are going to be at least two competing microkernel designs (proprietary of course) for each the army, navy and air forces under the current leadership structures.