[BinaryIdiot]

I worked on a large DoD contract where there was a core of about 12-20 people doing the majority of the work and about 140 additional people just... having a job.

The legal requirements to collecting money on defense contracts pretty much always does this.

[wonderwonder]

I know someone personally who's company was hired as a subcontractor to one of the majors on the F-35 project. He was put in a room to do nothing. They forgot he was in a meeting once and he overheard them saying that they were just hiring the subcontractors to get the government schedule people off of their backs, they were not there to actually do anything.

So happy my tax dollars are going towards this rather than feeding the hungry or providing shelter to homeless kids.

[AdrianB1]

Part of the problem is you; not a personal attack, just an explanation: if you would be more concerned about your tax dollars staying in your pocket, you would be much more careful with all the government spending and putting much more pressure on doing the right thing. If your position is "the government take my tax money, at least I wish they spent it on something good" then you are less involved, it's no longer your money and you care less.

[01100011]

Defense companies sell butts in chairs. They know the game and play it well. I remember working on defense and the PM was pushing me to reduce hours. I was costing the project over $500/hr. The IC who was working with me could work all he wanted though, due to the way his costs were billed.

Working at that place, I heard stories from other defense veterans detailing massive, unending incompetence and graft.

[Traster]

If there's one thing I've learned over my time as an engineer, it's that there's far fewer people actually doing anything than you expect. I've worked with engineers building 5G infrastructure, the people who are actually doing the work probably account for a few dozen, but add the managers, sales, marketing, business development, and bloody project manager and you're up to hundreds immediately. It's always a nice surprise when you end up in a meeting and someone utters a shibboleth and ting this guy must actually do the work!