From my viewpoint as a lowly engineer working on military projects (aviation and naval, UK and Aus) there are several problems.
The personnel problem on the customer side is plain (2 year tours, not much experience etc), though a lot of my current customer PO is permanent civil servants.
Also, there is much wrong with the major contractors. To win the bid, you have to put in the most believable lie you can. You have to say you will be cheaper and quicker than the competition, without being caught bullsh.tting.
Even many projects that say they are "on time and on budget" are only in that position due to the latest adjustments/agreements with the customer. Schedules are almost meaningless.
I am asked how long it will take to do a task, I say, for instance, 2 weeks (10 days). The manager then tries to give me 7 days, and looks pissed off when I say "no, 10 days". There is a major lack of understanding on the part of project managers, schedule is king and leads to the god of money. If you don't meet the schedule, you get extra 'help' and have to waste time explaining things to them, and generating more metrics/recovery plans/schedules to satisfy them.
The idea of a major contract is to do absolute minimum possible to meet the requirements, doesn't matter how suitable to product is. (e.g. controls for a video recorder on one screen of an MFK, yet tape counter on a completely different page
)
The major contractors are also getting snowed under in process and standards (reporting, metrics, reviews). You have to have all these things to show you are a competent organisation, and individually each makes sense. However, you end up with so many of them that they take so much time that nobody gets the core work done. My current project has more people faffing around on contracts and commercial stuff than we have engineers doing the core job.
I think for Aus the whole Australianisation thing sometimes costs more money than it generates (well, a lot of the time to be honest). I'm all for keeping cash in the country (and me employed), but the cost and time blowouts to come up with a unique version of something scary. I don't think we have the economy to support the buying habit of Australianisation. I reckon let the better off countries buy the 'A' model, then when the bugs are ironed out, we'll get some, probably still quicker than waiting for it to be Australianised.
Even fixed price contracts are not the cure people had hoped. If the customer stuck rigidly to them the penalty payments and liquidated damages etc would drive the company under, and you wouldn't get any product. Maybe that needs to be the new attitude, pick a couple of smallish projects and ruthlessly implement the contract, no leeway. The government wastes some money in the short term, a couple of companies go under / get swallowed by competitors, Other companies get the message and suddenly become more realistic in pricing an schedule. Not a great vote winner though, politicians may have to find a new job.
I am often stopped from doing a job to the best of my abilities because all we want is the minimum effort for the cheapest cost.
Basically, I'm looking to get out of engineering and do something completely different. The dissatisfaction with how these military projects go is not just on the customer side. Sorry for the war-and-peace rant.
Anybody in Aus looking to employ an ex-engineer?
(probably not after that rant, thank god for internet anonymity)