Because the US military is a heavily politicized institution now, and if we try to spend money that even slightly departs from the way Congress wants, they quickly step in and make a media spectacle of it, talking about how we’ve gone woke. It’s why we can’t get the electric vehicles we’ve been talking about buying for years, why we can’t get rid of the planes we want to, and why we end up with ridiculously expensive procurement projects that we basically don’t want by time they’re all said and done.

Did not know this fork exists. Thank you for enlightening my day, Internet stranger.