While I generally agree that the government should buy something off-the-shelf that's already built -- and at a quarter-million dollars, this doesn't even come

While I generally agree that the government should buy something off-the-shelf that's already built -- and at a quarter-million dollars, this doesn't even come close to boondoggle territory -- sometimes the requirements are set explicitly to grant the purchase to a specific buyer the government had in mind, instead of the requirements really being generated in a neutral manner and then looking at the marketplace.