The FAR is a necessary reaction to something well known in the US, called by some "war profiteering," that traces its roots back to the Civil War, and perhaps further back than that.
It is a necessary tool of congressional oversight. (Warts and all). How the public purse gets divvied up is of political interest. (The F-35 program's cleverness included 109 Congressional districts being involved in production of one bit or another).
I'll agree about 50-60 percent on what Mech has presented, and also agree that once the bullets start flying, some stuff gets accelerated procurement and production.
MRAP and Stryker come to mind.
So too a variety of UAVs and Drones in the past 20+ years. I watched that capability blossom in the first five years of "The War Against Terror" (T.W.A.T.) and it's been continuing on since then.
(The unmanned, carrier-born, refueling aircraft is getting close to IOC...)