>it was built and designed by the lowest bidder. This is true but it still has to be built to spec and pass testing. Manufacturers can't substitute materials a

>it was built and designed by the lowest bidder. This is true but it still has to be built to spec and pass testing. Manufacturers can't substitute materials and whatnot to save cost. Having said that, the military might have different priorities than you are I would, most notably, they have to have 2,000,000 of a said widget and spec accordingly. A good example is the Thompson sub machine gun, which was a commercial weapon, beautiful and well made, but a very expensive piece of hardware. It was replaced mid WW2 with the M3 submachine gun (Grease Gun), a useful, durable, but made of stamped steel and about 1/5th of the cost. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_submachine_gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_submachine_gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_submachine_gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_submachine_gun