Why SpaceX Will Catch Super Heavy

The free market will find a way. The multiplying layers of government red tape will always have a diminishing return on investment. When I was working for Raytheon, my team could complete contracts in 2/5 to 3/10 the amount of time a government account could do the same work. And the government entity always went back to the GAO for more time and money. For one aircraft the government facility was bidding, cost-plus, at 5000 hours per airframe and we bid 1500 hours for the same work.

The real difference was the crew size. You can't have 5 people in one avionics bay at a time, with less people it was more efficient and cost effective. Errors with blue prints could be handled quicker without committee and RACs had quick turn-around. The quick turn-around with a smaller crew also meant the techs weren't sitting around billing time as they could do other tasks within of the aircraft. As a sup, my crew and I received several civilian DoD and military accolades for efficiency.

FYI, when dan burnham introduced "centers of excellence" to Raytheon and I had to take on an electrician from a bomb factory, I learned quickly that bomb techs can't tie wire bundles very well.