You said: "Defense and military spending/purchasing is incredibly complex and bureaucratic and a supplier can take many years to break through the red tape into this market."

Used to be the case, in that you had to first qualify as a supplier by proving compliance with mil.std.s (quality assurance requirements) and the CAS (Gov't Cost Accounting Standards). But in 1994, everything changed so that the Gov't would act more like a commercial buyer. While compliance with CAS can still be bit of an issue (have to set up your accounting so you easily isolate costs by project, with timecards and all), the Gov't implemented FASA (Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act). It changed the quality standards to conform with ISO 900X - the international commercial quality standard (which also calls for certain organizational requirements and systemic checks/balances). That, plus the DLA went electronic, and you had to register for electronic proposal submittals, etc. So it ain't so tough any more. Lowest compliant bidder wins. But getting "KNOWN" for the big contracts is still a hurdle, and a Gov't proposal review includes "Past Performance" with a heavy weighting for big contracts competitively bid. By big I mean $25M+.

Sorry to go off, but most people are unaware of the changes that have been implemented (I performed the training on it at our site - still have the VHS tapes!).

FWIW,

SGE