Exactly. Proxmire never looked at the details.
And note that it’s not just the paperwork that causes the high costs. Take those “toilet seats”–first, they weren’t seats, but entire toilet enclosures. On a plane expected to go into combat–while the Air Force isn’t going to care how well it functions with battle damage they most certainly do care what happens when it takes battle damage. They don’t want toxic smoke, they don’t want dangerous splinters flying all over the airplane. And IIRC the order quantity was 10–at that point you’re paying for the R&D, not the seats.
