Military contractors routinely appear on TV and in movies as nefarious organisations that are up to no good. They’re easy to bash, since they have the magic combination of militarism and capitalism.
Yet when the government tries to take over a task that was previously outsourced – testing equipment – they screw it up.
Body-armor manufacturers are raising concerns that a Pentagon decision to move armor testing from private labs to an Army research center will increase costs and slow the availability of lifesaving equipment as thousands of additional U.S. troops head to Afghanistan.