So, believe it or not. The Government is a lot better as a procurer than a manager in the long run. Private industry is much more free to morph the way they do things than the government is, and a lot of the government is already specialized around the logistics of outsourcing to private industry vs. doing any of the work themselves.
The arrangement does actually work fairly well in a crisis; you just need the sense of urgency to get everyone in the private sector all cranking on the same problem.
Or at least it has worked well before. Things like the F-22, F35, and Littoral Combat Ship aside... There is a point where stuff turns into a nightmare. The medical equipment needed though isn't really a problem where you should run into the sort of slog those projects ran into though.
The arrangement does actually work fairly well in a crisis; you just need the sense of urgency to get everyone in the private sector all cranking on the same problem.
Or at least it has worked well before. Things like the F-22, F35, and Littoral Combat Ship aside... There is a point where stuff turns into a nightmare. The medical equipment needed though isn't really a problem where you should run into the sort of slog those projects ran into though.