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 == Rational versus irrational ""redesigning the existing"" == 
 It occurs to me that, (especially with the military examples given here) there is often a rational reason why a state/country chooses to not use existing technology, but to design their own, but still these cases are often treated here as prime examples of NIH syndrome, and that is not the case at all! 
 I think that in those cases it has nothing to do with the NIH syndrome.  
 For example, it would be foolish for a state to be dependent on their enemies for the supply of their weapons! It is much smarter to (re-)design your own, so you can be sure you can produce the damn things when needed.  

 The NIH syndrome has nothing to do with that.  
 Instead NIH as ""a decision maker"" is the often subconscious mind process not to use technology (or ""a design"") because you dislike doing so for some un-outspoken reason, a reason the decision maker does not know he is using!  
 One example is that you do it simply because you dislike the country/person/company that is the origin of the design.  
 When the decision is however a conscious one, backed with good reasons, it is NOT the NIH syndrome at work.  "