When hammers for the defense dept cost $15,000, it tends to add up. Now how much of those expenses where unrelated to an approved budget item or daily diem?
You have to look at the details for military procurement. They have a way of spreading costs across a pallet load that mingles very expensive items (jet engines) with not-so-expensive items (office chairs). Also, if the hammer must be titanium to save weight and meet certain dimensions for a storage compartment and you are only ordering one item, then the cost of material and labor and tool time to machine one item is what you pay, and that is not cheap.
When hammers for the defense dept cost $15,000, it tends to add up. Now how much of those expenses where unrelated to an approved budget item or daily diem?
You have to look at the details for military procurement. They have a way of spreading costs across a pallet load that mingles very expensive items (jet engines) with not-so-expensive items (office chairs). Also, if the hammer must be titanium to save weight and meet certain dimensions for a storage compartment and you are only ordering one item, then the cost of material and labor and tool time to machine one item is what you pay, and that is not cheap.