ABSTRACT
The claims are familiar: the $435 hammer, the $640 toilet seat, the $91 screw, the $2,917 wrench, and the $7,000 coffee pot. Oh, sometimes we get the amounts mixed up and say the $600 hammer and $2,000 toilet seat, but we all know these are outrageous examples of apparent contractor fraud and abuse and incompetent government management that draw attention to the Department of Defense’s weapons acquisition process. What we usually do not know is the real story, the boring bureaucratic explanations that would, if widely known, temper the late-night TV talk show hosts’ jokes and calm to some extent the moral outrage of taxpayers contemplating their annual bill.
