alt Hacker NewsThe military could fix this internally if they wanted to. There are plenty of people who can write good code and don't mind doing push-ups and going to the range as well.
Dotgov is a lot harder. Salaries are artificially capped very low, and even one of these horrific contracting body shops will pay you 30% more than you'd make in the government, and you don't need to deal with all the bullshit that comes with working for the government.
It’s all part of an ideological attempt to stymie the ability of government to work effectively and then point to how government doesn’t work effectively to justify funneling money to politically connected contractors. It’s the modern version of patronage except that instead of getting jobs for the people in your clan, you get massive contracts for your donors which can be structured so that they’ll still be making money even if you don’t win re-election.