Thank you Dan, we know that must have been a real effort coming from you.
I hope it was not like having a baby (I mean the pain).
You see, one of the problems with the current US Military procurement system involves career officers.
After a certain point in their careers they are assigned to some new materiel program that entails direct contact with a defense contractor, after a few years their careers mostly end with a VP job associated with one contractor or the very same one the was in their direct line of contact (see the LUH program and of course this latest major debacle by Boeing for the KC-X program).
If someone at some corporate level believes that they do not need an effort in developing new technologies just because they can bag the contract from the inside, then is only their windfall if that does not happen.
And what company do you work for (or provide consultation services)?