I worked for a military contractor. Their scam was to get the contract through the lowest bid, then run overtime, repeatedly, then deliver a product they knew wasn't going to work, ever. The government then had to hire a new contractor. If I hadn't lived it, I wouldn't believe it, either.
I worked for a small aerospace sub who occasionally would charge expedite & set-fees on already made (extra) parts they had sitting on a shelf. They used the extra money to give all three employees Xmas bonuses.
Sorry, I'm not seeing the part of this story that is hard to believe though That's literally my experience with every type of business in every industry for my entire lifetime. Make empty promises to get the contract, run up costs as high as you can, then dump the failure and call it delivered.
You have the luck with business that I have with people. Time for us both to change our luck.
Can vouch for that as well having worked on the civilian side of some of these systems. The problem also is that so much of this tech is very complicated and your average NCO does not have the training, skills or equipment to fix. But when the contractors are needed they stick it to the government.