The Air Force is having to reverse engineer parts of its own stealth bomber
I can&#x27;t be certain, but I suspect the <i>real</i> problem was that the original contract was signed without requiring the technical data rights and&#x2F;or delivery of the technical data. This is a common mistake made by the DoD, and can lead to extraordinarily high costs later.<p>Just look at the notice: &quot;The deliverables will include all technical data related to the heat exchanger disassembly, all technical data related to the cores, all technical data related to the stack up, vacuum brazing, and installation of the cores on existing units. The deliverables will also include all technical data related to the tooling needed...&quot; It&#x27;s clear they don&#x27;t have the technical data.<p>Here&#x27;s how this can happen: the government asks for proposals, and the prospective contractors say &quot;we&#x27;ll create it for you for cheaper if you don&#x27;t require the technical data &amp; its related rights&quot;. The government program manager (PM) is under a lot of pressure to &quot;get it cheaper&quot;, and this is cheaper in the short term, so the government PM agrees. The PM will be around for a few years, then leave. Later on, the contractor is the <i>only</i> one who can make the parts (because they&#x27;re the only ones with the technical data &amp; the technical data rights to do it). The government procurement system is all about competition, but now there is no possibility for real competition. Thus, the parts will cost 10x or more, and the government PM who approved this is long gone (probably with a promotion), and the contractor is happy with incredibly large profit margins.<p>I don&#x27;t know if that&#x27;s what happened in this case. But it&#x27;s very very possible.