RRBud said:

I've worked around the U.S. aerospace industry for the past 40+ years and find your comment to be a massive understatement.

I have similar experiences.
Most likely its true for every point in time trough all of human history regardless of place and culture. As soon as bureaucrats and politicians get involved things often go south.
The difference is in how transparent such happenings are and how they are comunicated.

There is no kill like overkill!

I heard a machinegun owner refer to this as "how to turn money into noise and smoke" (and in this case, fire).  Just watching that video caused a significant pain in my wallet!

LOL.  Yeah, it's certainly expensive.  However, I think most machine gun hobbyists are wealthy enough that they don't care about the $$$ spent.