Which isn't exactly a new practice when it comes to defence contracts in any halfway-democratic nation.
ObComicsFanboy: Looking at such things through such a lens of porkbarrelling parts supply chains, I wonder how difficult it is for SHIELD to get their Helicarriers built. Sure, Stark got to be the main contractor (partly because Reed Richards was too focused on pure exploration and R&D, and because Forge had the "mutant" tag on his national/planetary security file as a mark against him) until he decided he wanted out of military work...but even in those days, a lot of sub-contracting had to be going on.
Re: Why not?
ObComicsFanboy: Looking at such things through such a lens of porkbarrelling parts supply chains, I wonder how difficult it is for SHIELD to get their Helicarriers built. Sure, Stark got to be the main contractor (partly because Reed Richards was too focused on pure exploration and R&D, and because Forge had the "mutant" tag on his national/planetary security file as a mark against him) until he decided he wanted out of military work...but even in those days, a lot of sub-contracting had to be going on.