[ReptileMan]

The majority of military hardware costs are bribes, kickbacks and margins. Nobody thinks that they will fight a real war in which they will need a lot of hardware.

If the US or Germany get in situation they need thousands of those - I guess their cost will fall to under 1M.

[thephyber]

Do you have any evidence of this?

Also “and margins” seems like a stupid thing to add. Margins are high during peacetime and wartime alike. And it’s not parallel to bribes / kickbacks which are corrupt and illegal. Margins are the natural outcome of capitalism + monopoly.

Having S Korean competition means those margins would likely drop over time.

[ReptileMan]

>Do you have any evidence of this?

I have been advisor to some people signing the deals. I would say that depending on the project in my slice of the industry at least 25-30% were outright redistributed to various stakeholders.

[mohamedkoubaa]

If the US is ever in that situation again we won't be measuring cost of any manufacturable thing in dollars