Boeing overcharged the U.S. Air Force 8,000% above market for soap dispensers

The issue is the outmoded and excessively specific system of procurement used by the US Military - one more or less mandated by congress.

We can chose to alter how we procure, but there are good reasons why the system is as it is, so a careful effort to understand why it is like it is before we reform must be undertaken.

Chesterton's Fence applies here for sure.

Congress does not stop the US military from "keeping a database of historical prices, obtaining supplier quotes or identifying commercially similar parts."

Those procedures do not happen because generals retire into cushy barely-show jobs at defense contractors

Congress does not dare force the US military to do any of the above because the US military is a giant pork barrel welfare program for red states, especially the midwestern ones, feeding them endless useless manufacturing work and keeping all their unskilled-labor high school graduates out of unemployment - sending them into the military where they learn some semblance of how to be an adult and some skills