> Because as it turns out, the reason that dumping lots of cash into prime contractors doesn’t result in what the armed forces need is because prime contractors

> Because as it turns out, the reason that dumping lots of cash into prime contractors doesn’t result in what the armed forces need is because prime contractors are cash management machines who occasionally delegate grubby work to subcontractors dependent on them. This isn't entirely fair. The author fails to explain just why there are only five major defense contractors. Sure, there was Clinton pressuring for a "peace dividend" in the 90's after the FSU's collapse, but 25 years have passed. Why don't the subcontractors, working for the major defense contractors, work directly with the Pentagon? If the financing is so easy and risk-free, the contracts are published publicly, and the prime contractors such poor partners (making late payments etc.), then why work with the primes? The DoD should engage in a lot of navel gazing to make its procurement contracts easier for smaller firms to navigate. The truth of the matter is, the Big Five aren't just cash-management firms; they employ armies of their own: divisions of regulatory experts and legal teams and people with the right certifications that require years of experience at larger firms and people whose job it is to produce the reams and reams of paperwork that the DoD demands. That's the value-add they're bringing. They speak the DoD language when talking to the DoD, engineering language when talking to subcontractors, and banker language when talking to Wall Street. Northrup Grumman and General Dynamics and their ilk will cry all the way to the Wall Street Journal at any attempt to turn off the spigot. Fair enough. But in an era where production is too slow, how does closing the spigot fix the problem? We should make financing more difficult in an industry where it's too easy? How is that going to fix anything? Fix the real problem which is the reams and reams of Pentagon red tape that the Big Five depend on for their competitive moat to keep the subcontractors from working with the Pentagon directly.